HIST 2057 Chapter : The New South
Document Summary
Former slaves should have become workers with buying jobs: demand for workers; wages should be higher. Sharecropper, tenants, renters, and landlords: arrangements for plantations owners and poor, former slaves. The workers didn"t have any equipment or materials for farming, so they had to sharecrop. Sharecropping: landowners arrange for workers to farm and live on a specific lot; owner gets share of crop from worker in exchange for living on the land. Workers had to get materials and equipment by getting credit with local merchants. Workers sell their crop and the pay their debt for equipment; could still be in debt: cycle of not being able to get out of debt; trapped and hard to get out of out of. Tenant farming: owners hires workers to work for money: plantation owners still control everything. Renting: workers rent from plantations owners; can control crop; gave most control in workers.
