US History December Research Paper

Immediately upon the end of the Civil War on May 9, 1865, millions of slaves were freed in the South. This brought the Southern cotton industry to a sudden halt. The acres upon acres of land that the slaves worked upon were deserted and the former slave owners needed new people to step in to replace the slaves' work. The free men and women had no money, no land, and no resources even though they had the skills to farm and grow their own crops. This was when a type of tenant farming, or sharecropping became widely popular in the South. Sharecropping sounded like a profitable deal to the people of color who wanted a chance to be independent, but in reality it was a rigged system that set the black Southerners in a never ending cycle of debt. 

Slavery is a concept that has to be studied to fully understand how sharecropping came to exist prevalently in the Southern states. Slavery was a practice that kidnapped people from Africa and sold the individuals as property. The slaves were "exploited to work as indentured servants and labor in the production of crops such as tobacco and cotton"(Article #7, Slavery in America). The slaves were forced to work extremely long hours with barely any food or sleep. They were beaten or whipped whenever the owners orders were not followed. When a slave gave birth, the child was immediately separated from their parents. The slave children would be sold to another plantation where they will be forced to work as soon as they were able to. When slaves were freed in the south, many of them had no place to go because their families were separated due to the inhumane practices of slavery. From the newly gained freedom, many wanted to feel a sense of independence where they would be in control of their own life and work. This led to the concept of sharecropping. 

Sharecropping was not a foreign idea since it was “essentially an adjustment of the plantation system created to permit the owners to maintain a large measure of control over farm operations”(Article #5, Agricultural Economics), just like slavery did. When described in detail, sharecropping is a system of farming where “families rent small plots of land from a landowner in return for a portion of their crop, to be given to the landowner at the end of each year”(Article #6, Sharecropping). This system was an attempt to reestablish a labor force for the landowners and to provide economic independence for the freed blacks so they would be able to earn a living. Although this system provided a large number of workers to the landowners, the sharecroppers received the short end of the stick.

The tenant farmers were binded by a contract that stated that they are required to “give a portion of their crops as rent to the landowner whose fields they worked”(Article #1, Great Migration). The portion that was taken as payment was “usually 30 to 50%”(Article #7, Slavery in America) for the land. This was an estimate based on the amount of  produce that each family was able to harvest. The contract also stated that sharecroppers are not allowed to leave the land that they rent unless they pay back all of their debt. This is essentially putting the sharecropper into a system of slavery because there is no freedom when they can not choose what they want to do.In a post civil war society where there was an obvious bias against people of color, “banks generally refused to lend money to sharecroppers, leaving them further dependent on landowners”(Article #3, Debt Slavery). The reliant nature of the relation of sharecropper and landowner lead to the sharecropper not being able to oppose any commands from the landowner, even if landowner were to cheat the sharecropper of their crops, which occurred rather often.

In addition to the terrible conditions of the contract, landowners often forced the sharecroppers to only use plantation stores and the “charges for the supplies were deducted from the sharecroppers’ portion of the harvest, leaving them with substantial debt”(Article #4, Sharecropping). These plantation stores were another cash grab for the landowners because they had exorbitant price markups which added to the sharecroppers already prominent debt. The landowners often implemented unfair rules that increased their reliance, one example being the rule that states sharecroppers could not save cotton seeds for the next planting season. This may not seem to be a big issue now because it is so simple to go out and buy a pack of seeds in the store. In the conditions of a sharecropper, this was an absolutely outrageous rule since they would need thousands of seeds to plant in the field. If they had real freedom, they would be able to save cotton seeds from the plant that they made, which is much more cost efficient. Since the tenants had to adhere to the landowners' rules to not be sent to court, they would obey orders and purchase the overpriced seeds year after year, which is adding to their annually increasing debt. 

As far of this practice of sharecropping being legal, it was not much of a concern for the white landowners. This was mainly because “southern courts were unlikely to rule in favor of black sharecroppers against white landowners”(Article #3, Debt Slavery). With the preexisting racism in the south, it was practically impossible to achieve a favorable outcome and rather than souring their relationship with the landowner, many sharecroppers would have made no claims that would devastate the landowners reputation. Along with the overall negative public opinion on people of color, there were “comprehensive and openly discriminatory Jim Crow laws”(Article #1, Great Migration) which enforced racial segregation targeted to African Americans. This included denying the right to vote, hold jobs, and even getting an education. 

One incident that opposed sharecropping was the rebellion in Elaine, Arkansas in 1919. It was caused when “A sharecroppers’ union had attracted the attention of local whites, and…  a railroad security officer and a deputy sheriff, both white, arrived…  a shootout ensued between them and the union’s armed guards, during which the security officer was killed and the deputy sheriff was wounded”(Article #2, African Americans). In response to this, 25 to 200 African Americans were murdered by white rioters, and 5 whites were killed. Since the court was in Arkansas which is a Southern state, and there was a harsh prejudice against people of color. This resulted in 12 men sentenced to death and 65 others receiving long prison sentences. This would have been soul crushing considering the absence of penalties for white rioters in comparison to the extremely heavy penalties forced upon the black male members of the sharecroppers’ union. 

The system of sharecropping was devastated by the Great Depression since sharecroppers were mainly reliant on cotton as the main cash crop “just at the time when the price for cotton was plunging”(Article #6, Sharecropping). The overproduction of cotton also contributed to the terribly low prices which left the sharecroppers with no profit. Another factor that contributed to the decrease of sharecropping was the gradual shift towards mechanization or the use of “farm machinery and the reduction in the acreage of cotton”(Article #5, Agricultural Economics). Since machines were cheaper in the long run and required less effort, farmers naturally shifted their focus into machines rather than the use of a human labor force. Because this gradual shift into mechanization left many sharecroppers unemployed, the northern migration took place “between 1910 and 1970 (when), 6.5 million blacks went North, leaving the South, the cotton fields, and sharecropping behind”(Article #7, Slavery in America). The mechanization in cities and factories also attracted people to try and live a new life, not impacted by their past. 

The contract that binds the tenant to the land means to strip the individual of their freedom by taking portions of the produce and not allowing them to leave the land until all debt is paid off, creating a situation that is similar to the practice of slavery. This was not legal nor illegal because slavey was illegal but the idea of the tenant being able to profit from their crops was giving enough freedom. This was not an ethical process since it is trickery but the Southern courts believed in white supremacy and never ruled in favor of the sharecropper despite all of the problematic practices that were brought to the public eye.  

To conclude, sharecropping was a harmful practice that misled the tenant into believing they have complete control over their life. In reality, the corrupt system was created to favor the landowner. The landowner only rented out land and in return received a workforce that knew how to farm, heap loads of money from the outrageous markups, and even one third to one half of what the sharecropper produced. The shocking markups on all necessary items for farming, along with the unjust rules created to keep the sharecropper reliant on the landowner, makes this system that seemed like an opportunity, look like a terrible mistake into an endless loop of debt that should have been avoided at all costs. Thankfully, this cycle of debt was eventually put to an end when the Great Depression hit and mechanization set in to farms. 

Bibliography

1. Carter, Jack. "Great Migration." The 1920s in America, edited by Carl Rollyson, Salem, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.

2. Lutz, Chrissy. "African Americans." The 1920s in America, edited by Carl Rollyson, Salem, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.

3. "Debt Slavery." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 27 Aug. 2020. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/debt-slavery/610105. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.

4. "Sharecropping." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 31 Jul. 2020. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/sharecropping/632546. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.

5. "Agricultural Economics." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 16 Jan. 2019. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/agricultural-economics/111027. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.

6. History.com Editors. “Sharecropping.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 24 June 2010, www.history.com/topics/black-history/sharecropping. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.

History.com Editors. “Slavery in America.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 12 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery.