What Were Sharecropping And Tenant Farming And How Did They Affect The South?

By the early 1870s, the system known as sharecropping had come to dominate agriculture across the cotton-planting South. Under this system, Black families would rent small plots of land, or shares, to work themselves ; in return, they would give a portion of their crop to the landowner at the end of the year.

What was the effect of sharecropping and tenant farming?

Most tenant farmers and sharecroppers bought everything they needed on credit from local merchants , hoping to make enough money at harvest time to pay their debts. Over the years, low crop yields and unstable crop prices forced more farmers into tenancy.

What is tenancy and sharecropping?

Both tenant farmers and sharecroppers were farmers without farms . A tenant farmer typically paid a landowner for the right to grow crops on a certain piece of property. ... With few resources and little or no cash, sharecroppers agreed to farm a certain plot of land in exchange for a share of the crops they raised.

What impact did tenant farming have on the South *?

Some farmers lost their farms or their status as cash or share tenants because of crop failures , low cotton prices, laziness, ill health, poor management, exhaustion of the soil, excessive interest rates, or inability to compete with tenant labor.

What was sharecropping and tenant farming quizlet?

A system used on southern farms after the Civil War in which farmers worked land owned by someone else in return for a portion of the crops . Often led to debt on the farmer’s side. You just studied 5 terms!

How did sharecropping help the economy?

With the southern economy in disarray after the abolition of slavery and the devastation of the Civil War, sharecropping enabled white landowners to reestablish a labor force, while giving freed Black people a means of subsistence .

Who benefited most from sharecropping?

Sharecropping developed, then, as a system that theoretically benefited both parties . Landowners could have access to the large labor force necessary to grow cotton, but they did not need to pay these laborers money, a major benefit in a post-war Georgia that was cash poor but land rich.

What was the purpose of sharecropping?

Following the Civil War, plantation owners were unable to farm their land. They did not have slaves or money to pay a free labor force, so sharecropping developed as a system that could benefit plantation owners and former slaves .

Does tenant farming still exist?

A tenant farmer is one who resides on land owned by a landlord . ... In most developed countries today, at least some restrictions are placed on the rights of landlords to evict tenants under normal circumstances.

Does sharecropping still exist?

Cash rent and the 1/3-2/3 lease are the major contracts used now. However, a true sharecropping system is still in use from time to time.

What did tenant farmers have that sharecroppers did not?

Unlike sharecroppers, who could only contribute their labor but had no legal claim to the land or crops they farmed, tenant farmers frequently owned plow animals, equipment, and supplies . ... Tenant farmers usually received between two-thirds and three-quarters of the harvest, minus deductions for living expenses.

What was tenant farming in the South?

Tenant farming is a system of agriculture whereby farmers cultivate crops or raise livestock on rented lands . It was one of two agricultural systems that emerged in the South following the American Civil War (1861–1865); the other system was sharecropping.

How long did sharecropping and tenant farming last in the South?

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 .

What was one reason sharecropping began in the south quizlet?

What was one reason why sharecropping began in the South? It was a way to take advantage of the South’s strong infrastructure . The federal government required Southerners to use this system. The Southern economy and farms had been destroyed during the Civil War.

What long term effect did sharecropping have on the economy of the south?

The Great Depression had devastating effects on sharecropping, as did the South’s continued overproduction of and overemphasis on cotton and the ravages of the destructive boll weevil . Cotton prices fell dramatically after the stock market crash of 1929, and the ensuing downturn bankrupted farmers.

What were tenant farmers quizlet?

A tenant farmer is one who resided on land owned by a landlord . ... Tenant farmers usually paid the landowner rent for farmland and a house and they owned the crops they planed and made their own decision about them.