After the Civil War, former slaves sought jobs, and planters sought laborers. The absence of cash or an independent credit system led to the creation of sharecropping.
Sharecropping is a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop. This encouraged tenants to work to produce the biggest harvest that they could, and ensured they would remain tied to the land and unlikely to leave for other opportunities. In the South, after the Civil War, many black families rented land from white owners and raised cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and rice. In many cases, the landlords or nearby merchants would lease equipment to the renters, and offer seed, fertilizer, food, and other items on credit until the harvest season. At that time, the tenant and landlord or merchant would settle up, figuring out who owed whom and how much
High interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants often kept tenant farm families severely indebted, requiring the debt to be carried over until the next year or the next. Laws favoring landowners made it difficult or even illegal for sharecroppers to sell their crops to others besides their landlord, or prevented sharecroppers from moving if they were indebted to their landlord.
Approximately two-thirds of all sharecroppers were white, and one third were black. Though both groups were at the bottom of the social ladder, sharecroppers began to organize for better working rights, and the integrated Southern Tenant Farmers Union began to gain power in the 1930s. The Great Depression, mechanization, and other factors lead sharecropping to fade away in the 1940s.
7. This diagram shows the cycle that most sharecroppers wentthrough during the Nadir. Which of the following bestcompletes the diagram?: Sharecropper must plant more cropsnext year to help earn enough to pay off the debt.8. What describes a step that each former Confederate state had
Get answer to your question and much more
9. What was the main effect of the grandfather clauses andliteracy tests put in place in the South at the end of the 19th
Get answer to your question and much more
11. Which event led directly to the secession of Southern states?:
Get answer to your question and much more
12. Which group was founded to prevent African Americans from
Get answer to your question and much more
13. Which Native American practice was a central factor in the
Get answer to your question and much more
14. Which of these people or groups pushed hardest for strong
Get answer to your question and much more
17. Which statement best explains why the period from the end ofReconstruction to the early 20th century was referred to as
Get answer to your question and much more
- Arts and Humanities
- History
- History of the Americas
-
Flashcards
-
Learn
-
Test
-
Match
-
Flashcards
-
Learn
-
Test
-
Match
i only got one of the questions wrong, but i'll put the anwer it's not. the writing assignment at the end won't be on here either :)
Terms in this set (21)
Sets found in the same folderOther sets by this creatorVerified questions
history of the americas
Verified answer
history of the americas
Verified answer
history of the americas
Verified answer
history of the americas
Verified answer
Recommended textbook solutions