*** Reconstruction -- sharecropping








Reconstruction: Sharecropping

sharecropers children
Figure 1.--Here sharecroppers' families are gathering items for the annul 4th of July celebration in Hill House, Mississippi. The scene was photographed by Dorothea Lange in 1936.

Sharecropping is an agricultural system which developed in the Southern states after the Civil War. It was a farm tenancy system in which families worked a farm or section of land in return for a share of the crop rather than wages. Sharecropping replaced the plantation system destroyed by the Civil War. The victorious Federal authorities which occupied the South did not seize plantations, but empancipation meant that the owners no longer had a captive labor force. The former planters, even those activly engged in rebellion, for the most part still had their land, but no slaves or money to pay wages. The former slaves on the other hand did not have jobs or land and because they had been denied education, had few options. Sharecropping developed because the former slaves and planters needed each other. The principal crop continued to be cotton. And the planters under the sharecropping system contnued to a large degree to control the lives of the blacks working their land. While the system at first developed to obtain black labor, eventually poor whites also entered the sharecropping system. The system varied, but in many cases all the cropper brouht to the arrangement was his labor. The planter provided the land, but also commonly animals, equipment, seeds and other items. The land owners also commonly advanced credits for the family's living expences until the crop was harvested. The system was open to considerable abuse because the cropers were uneducated, commonly iliterate. Akmost all slaves in the Deep South following the Civil War would have been illiterate. It was illegal to teach slaves to read. By the 20th century black and white cropers would have had some minimal education, but iliteracy was still high. The land owner marketed the crop and kept all accounts. He charged interests on cash advances, often quite high interest. He also commonly operated a store where the cropers had to make their purchases. The normal arrangement was that the the croper got half the proceeds from the harvest. The landowner then deducted cash advances which because of high interest and dishonest accounting commonly left the croper very little. The system continued into the Depression of the 1930s. School portraits from the rural South during the late 19th and early 20th century will often include croper children. Many did not go very far in school. (The Southern states commonly had very weak compulsory school attendance laws.) The children commonly were barefoot. During the 20th century many wore overalls. After World War II, migrtion to the North, farm mechanization, education, other employment options, and the Civil Rights movement brought the system to an end.

Farm Tenancy System

Sharecropping is an agricultural farm tenancy system in which families worked a farm or section of land in return for a share of the crop rather than wages. We are mosdt familiar with it as a system which developed in the Southern states after the Civil War. It was, however, a system that was used in other countries. We notice share croppers in Italy.

Civil War

Sharecropping replaced the plantation system destroyed by the Civil War. The victorious Federal authorities which occupied the South did not seize plantations, but empancipation meant that the owners no longer had a captive labor force. The former planters, even those activly engged in rebellion, for the most part still had their land, but no slaves or money to pay wages. The former slaves on the other hand did not have jobs or land and because they had been denied education, had few options. Thus emancipation initially resulted in an acute labor shortage in the largely agrarian South. Productivity plumted and the economy in many areas essentially collapsed.

Renconstruction

President Johnson after the assasination of President Lincoln advocated a policy of "soft" Reconstruction. He rapidly brought the Southern states into the Union. The resulting all-white state legislatures passed "black codes" meant to force the recently freed blacks back on the plantations. Authorities put them to work in gangs. The codes varioed from state to sate, but were very similar in many ways. The black codes denied blacks the right to purchase or even rent land. The states also passed vagrancy laws authorizing authorities to arrest blacks "in idleness" and assign them to work/chain gang. They were then auctioned off to land owners for vsarying periods--often as long as a year. Another element of some of the black codes was to required blacks to have written proof of employment. In some cases blacks were not permitted to leaving plantations. The Freedmen's Bureau was even used to enforce some of these codes, especially the laws against vagrancy and loitering. Sopme blacks had stayed on the plantations and began farming as squaters. State officials prevented these squaters from obtaining title to the lsand. The aim of white authorities was essentially to restablish the plantation and slavery. Congressional Republicans moved to gain control of the Reconstruction from President Johnson. Their key step was to deny representatives from the former Confederate states who arrived in Washington from taking their Congressional seats. This meant that the Republicans had very strong majorities in both the House and Senate. They then proceeeded to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866 as well as the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. This took the unprecedented step of extend citizenship rights to black Americans. This provided them "equal protection of the laws". The Congress also passed the 15th Amendment which guaranteed voting rights. (The amendments had to be ratified by the states, but the impetus came from the Radical Republicans in Congress.) The Radical Republicans also attempted to confiscate plantations and redistribute land to the freed blacks. This was defeated.

Development of the Share Cropping System

Sharecropping developed because the former slaves and planters needed each other. The solution to this economic impasse was the sharecropping system. White authorities attempted to reimpose a thinly desguised form of slavery. The plantation owners souught to restore gang labor under white overseers. With the ascent of the Radical Republicans in Congress, however, this proved impossible. And the freed blacks man who wanted real autonomy generally refused to sign contracts that involved gang labor. Federal authorities limited the ability of white local officisals to use force. The result was that sharecropping emerged as a kind of compromise. . Sharecropping is believed to have originated in the Natchez District, basically Adams County, Mississipp. [Davis] It was called the Natchez Dustrict because the county seat was Natchez. Land owners began to divide the plantations into 20- to 50-acre plots. Notice the rough approximation of the 40 acres and a mule concept. This was the area of land that could reasonably be farmed by a single family using existing methods. This meant the former slaves continued the routine of cotton cultivation and under supervision--albeit less total than before the War. In addition, some blacks even managed to acquire land of their own.

Assessment

Some modern authors have likened share cropping to a new system of slavery. This is too simplistic an assessment. Sharecropping did allow land owners considerablke control over the lives of the freed slaves--but no longer absolute control. It is certainly true that share cropping posed very severe limitations on freed blacks. And that it developed as an explotive system. This was in large measure due to the monopoly of legal and extra-legal power by whites who enacted the Jim Crow system. Even so, the sharecropping system did allow the newly freed blacks for the frst time in their lives a degree of autonomy. Freedmen all over the South with teams of mules began dragging their slave cabins away from the centralized plantation slave quarters to their new fields. Modern authoirs often miss very real differences. The most important was the prtofound changes in black family life. Under slavery there was no legal recognition of family units. Some of the mosdt obscene aspects of slavery was theabuses imposed on slave families. Any member of the family could be sold off at any time. And women and children woirked the fields along with the men. Sharecropers could on a family basis divide labor. As a result, wives and daughters were lless involved in field work. They began to devote their energies to childcare and housework. These may seem to modern readers as very small gains. They were to the newly freed blacks very important achievemnents.

Crops

A major difference between share cropping and and the related tenant farm system is that there was more supervision involved over share cropers. And this included the selection of the crop to be raised. The principal crop raised by share croppers from the beginning continued to be cotton. A variety of crops were grown such as tobacco and rice depending on location and market conditions. Cotton was, however, by far the most important cash crop and the one raised by most share croppers. It was generally the real money crop. The individuald financing the share cropper, land owner or merchant insistd insisted on a cash crop being grown and this was primarily cotton. The same methods continued to be used, labor intensive agriculture. Unlike other major crops, few technical innovations developoed in cotton agriculture throughout the history of share croppong. The availability of cheap labor meant that there was little incentive to innovate. As late as the 1930s, cotton farming except for the disappearance of the plantations was little different than in ante-bellum era.

African American: Rural Southern Population

At the time of emancipation, black Americans were a rural, mostly southern population. There were northern free backs, but more than than 90 percent of American blacks lived in the South, mostly in rural areas, often on plantations in the Deep South. It is one reason why Lincoln could justify emancipation as a war measure damaging the Confederate economy. His was important because there was bound to be a legal challenge to the Emancipation Proclamation. There were blacks in the North, but relatively small numbers. In contrast to the South, northern blacks primarily lived in cities. This demographic pattern did not change significantly after Empancipation. Many of the emamcipated blacks became share croppers. This was not a system just for blacks. There were also many white share croppers and their econonmic lecel was only marginally abive those of blacks. At the turn of the 20th century, blacks continued to live primarily in the rurl South. A good example is an unidentified Savanah, Georgia family in 1907. Some southern blacks did move into cities, mostly southern cities. Relativelhy few blacks moved north in the 19th century. But there was a degree of movement within the South, such a movement west to Texas. The Great Migration of southern blacks in the 20th century was part of a much wider process by which southern blacks first began migrating within the South in search of economic, social, and political justice. [Reich] We are not entirely sure why the movment Northdid not begin earlier.

Racial Connotations

Share cropping developed after the Civil War (1861-65) The first share croppers were the former black slaves freed by the Federal arny. The planters under the share cropping system contnued to a large degree to dominate, but no longer control the lives of the blacks working their land. Gradually the system was extended to poor white farmers. While the system at first developed to obtain black labor, eventually poor whites also entered the sharecropping system in large numbers. One assessment suggests that by the 20th century, approximately two-thirds of all sharecroppers/tenant farmers were white, and one third were black. [Oakley, p. 184.] The precise numbers varied from state to state. In Tennessee, whites were two thirds or more of the sharecroppers. [McKenzie] The ratio was different in the Deep South. In Mississippi, by 1900, about a third of white farmers were tenants or sharecroppers, while 85 percent of black farmers did not own the land they farmed. [Bolton] In Georgia, blacks in 1910 owned fewer than 16,000 farms, but worked 107,000 farms. [Geisen] In all southern states most black farmers were share croppersor tennanbt farmers. he relative proportion, however, was different. Relatively few blacks actually owned the land tthat they worked. [Kirby] Many more white farmers owned their land.

Operation

The system varied, but in many cases all the cropper brouht to the arrangement was his labor. The planter provided the land, but also commonly animals, equipment, seeds and other items. The land owners also commonly advanced credits for the family's living expences until the crop was harvested. The system was open to considerable abuse because the cropers were uneducated, commonly iliterate. Akmost all slaves in the Deep South following the Civil War would have been illiterate. It was illegal to teach slaves to read. By the 20th century black and white cropers would have had some minimal education, but iliteracy was still high. The land owner marketed the crop and kept all accounts. He charged interests on cash advances, often quite high interest. He also commonly operated a store where the cropers had to make their purchases. The normal arrangement was that the the croper got half the proceeds from the harvest. The landowner then deducted cash advances which because of high interest and dishonest accounting commonly left the croper very little.

Children

Sharecropping was a family undertaking. Both the parents and the children worked on the farm. Sharecropping involved back-breaking labor and this included the children. Their work assignmentsd was affected by the age and gender of the children. The work included plowing (commonly with a mule), planting, weeding, and harvesting. Even when the children attended school, they would stay home when there was work to be done, especially when it was harvest time. School portraits from the rural South during the late-19th and early 20th-century will often include cropers children. his was especially common after the southern states began passing compulsory school aattendance laws in the early-20th century. Many did not go very far in school. (The Southern states commonly had very weak compulsory school attendance laws.) The children commonly were barefoot. During the early-20th century many children in rural areas wore overalls. This was especially common with cropper children.

System Disappears

The system continued into the Greeat Depression of the 1930s, but was already declininh at the time. And although rarely mentioned by liberal-minded histoirians, the reason was America's free market system. This worked in a variety of ways. First, many blacks were drawn north by the relative freedom abd job opportunities generated by the capitalist economy in large norther citiies--the Great Migration. Second, America farms were becoming more mechanized. Marchinery meant that fewer farm workerts were needed. Third, was World War II. World War I was a factor, but Workd War II was much more important. The War created good paying jobs in factories all over the country. Cropper families black and white sought those jobs, both in southern cities and the North. Fourth, was the Civil Rights movement, but by the time it was really sugnificnt, share cropping had already disappeared. Fith was an expanding new system of migratory farm labor.

Sources

Bolton, Charles. "Farmers without land: The plight of white tenant farmers and sharecroppers", Mississippi History Now, (March 2004).

Coles, Robert. Migrants, Sharecroppers, Mountaineers (1972).

Conrad, D.E. The Forgotten Farmers: The Story of Sharecroppers in the New Deal (1965).

Davis, Ronald L. F. "The U. S. Army and the origins of sharecropping in the Natchez District: A case study," The Journal of Negro History Vol. 62, No.1 (January, 1977), pp. 60–80.

Geisen, James C. "Sharecropping," New Georgia Encyclopedia (January 26, 2007).

Kirby, Jack Temple. "Black anbd white in the rfural south, 1915-1954," Agricultural History Vol. 58, No. 3 (July 1984), pp. 411-22. This was a Symposium on the History of Rural Life in America.

McKenzie, Robert Tracy. "Sharecropping", Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.

Oakley, Giles. The Devil's Music: A History of the Blues (Da Capo Press, 1997).

Raper, A.F. and I. D. Reid. Sharecroppers All (1941, reprinted 1971).

Reich, Steven A. (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration (Greenwood Milestones in African American History, 2006).







CIH -- WW II







Navigate the CIH related pages
[Return to the Main Reconstruction page]
[Return to the Working chidren]
[Slavery] [Civil War] [Lost Cause] [Civil Rights movement]



Navigate the Children in Histotiry Website:
[Reyurn to the Main cotton history page]
[About Us]
[Introduction] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Climatology] [Clothing] [Disease and Health] [Economics] [Freedom] [Geography] [History] [Human Nature] [Ideology] [Law]
[Nationalism] [Presidents] [Religion] [Royalty] [Science] [Social Class]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Children in History Home]





Created: 11:45 PM 7/17/2007
Last updated: 12:02 AM 9/17/2022