HY 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Scalawag, Carpetbagger, Sharecropping
29 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Sharecropping
Despite efforts by white landowners to force blacks back into wage labor on
large plantations, emancipation enabled southern blacks to rent their own
plots of land, farm them, and provide for their families. A system
of sharecropping emerged in which many former plantation owners divided
their lands and rented out each plot, or share, to a black family. The family
farmed their own crops and rented their plot of land in exchange for a
percentage of their crop’s yield. Some poor, landless whites also became
sharecroppers, farming lands owned by wealthy planter elites. By 1880, the
vast majority of farmers in the South were sharecroppers.
Unfortunately, the economic prospects for blacks under the sharecropping
system were usually poor. Many former slaves ended up sharecropping on
land owned by their former masters, and the system kept blacks tied to their
shares—their rented plots of land—and thereby indebted to white landowners.
Moreover, because cotton prices dropped steadily from about fifty cents per
pound in 1864 to a little over ten cents per pound by the end of
Reconstruction, sharecroppers’ incomes were meager. Most black farmers
were able to purchase items only on credit at local shops—almost always
owned by their landlords—and thus went deep into debt.
The Black Codes
Despite the efforts of Radical Republicans in Congress, the white elite in the
South did everything it could to prevent blacks from gaining civic power. In
reaction to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, every southern legislature passed
laws to restrict opportunities for blacks. These black codes, which ranged
widely in severity, outlawed everything from interracial marriage to loitering in
public areas. One code outlawed unemployment, which allowed white
landowners to threaten their tenant farmers with eviction if they decided to
give up their land. The black codes in Mississippi were arguably the worst:
they stripped blacks of their right to serve on juries and testify against whites,
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Despite efforts by white landowners to force blacks back into wage labor on large plantations, emancipation enabled southern blacks to rent their own plots of land, farm them, and provide for their families. A system of sharecropping emerged in which many former plantation owners divided their lands and rented out each plot, or share, to a black family. The family farmed their own crops and rented their plot of land in exchange for a percentage of their crop"s yield. Some poor, landless whites also became sharecroppers, farming lands owned by wealthy planter elites. By 1880, the vast majority of farmers in the south were sharecroppers. Unfortunately, the economic prospects for blacks under the sharecropping system were usually poor. Many former slaves ended up sharecropping on land owned by their former masters, and the system kept blacks tied to their shares their rented plots of land and thereby indebted to white landowners.
