After the Civil War, sharecropping was a widespread response to the economic upheaval caused by the emancipation of slaves and disenfranchisement of poor whites . ... The system made landowners and sharecroppers dependent on local merchants, and it prevented the development of diversified farming in the South.
The system of sharecropping emerged in the South after the Civil War to address landowners’ lack of labor and capital, and former slaves’ need for land . Sharecroppers would agree to turn over a portion of their crop in exchange for use of the land for the season.
Sharecropping became popular after the Civil War’s end in 1865 when landowners no longer had slaves and there were millions of freed slaves looking for work . In many cases, former masters turned to their former slaves and offered them jobs in exchange for a portion of the crop.
Sharecropping was a system of agriculture instituted in the American South during the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War. ... Under the system of sharecropping, a poor farmer who did not own land would work a plot belonging to a landowner. The farmer would receive a share of the harvest as payment.
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 .
How did the economy in the South change after the Civil War?
During Reconstruction, many small white farmers, thrown into poverty by the war, entered into cotton production , a major change from prewar days when they concentrated on growing food for their own families. Out of the conflicts on the plantations, new systems of labor slowly emerged to take the place of slavery.
After the Civil War, sharecropping was a widespread response to the economic upheaval caused by the emancipation of slaves and disenfranchisement of poor whites . Sharecroopping helped to maintain the status quo between Blacks and Whites. To finance the sharecropping system, southerners turned to the crop lien system.
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.
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.
How did reconstruction benefit the South?
Among the other achievements of Reconstruction were the South’s first state-funded public school systems , more equitable taxation legislation, laws against racial discrimination in public transport and accommodations and ambitious economic development programs (including aid to railroads and other enterprises).
What is a scalawag in the Civil War?
Scalawag, after the American Civil War, a pejorative term for a white Southerner who supported the federal plan of Reconstruction or who joined with black freedmen and the so-called carpetbaggers in support of Republican Party policies.
What was one long-term consequence of the sharecropping system? Agricultural workers organized labor unions . Many former slaves became trapped in a cycle of debt. Landowners sold property to pay wages to former slaves.
Ultimately, sharecropping emerged as a sort of compromise. ... The high interest rates landlords and sharecroppers charged for goods bought on credit (sometimes as high as 70 percent a year) transformed sharecropping into a system of economic dependency and poverty.
What was the result of debt peonage?
Peonage, also called debt slavery or debt servitude, is a system where an employer compels a worker to pay off a debt with work. Legally, peonage was outlawed by Congress in 1867 . ... The paperwork and debt record of individual prisoners was often lost, and these men found themselves trapped in inescapable situations.
How the Civil War changed the economy?
It improved commercial opportunities , the construction of towns along both lines, a quicker route to markets for farm products, and other economic and industrial changes. During the war, Congress also passed several major financial bills that forever altered the American monetary system.
What happened to the South after the Civil War?
Much of the Southern United States was destroyed during the Civil war. Farms and plantations were burned down and their crops destroyed. ... The rebuilding of the South after the Civil War is called the Reconstruction . The Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877.
