Sharecropping in the 1870s Saanvi Kunisetty

 Sharecropping in the 1870s

Saanvi Kunisetty

After the Civil War ended, Reconstruction began, during which the United States imposed policies in an attempt to rebuild the South. To be honest, the efforts proved to be quite futile by the end of the Reconstruction Era. This was largely due to practices that Southerners devised in an attempt to keep freedmen from having basic rights, while still keeping the practices technically legal. One such example was sharecropping. I first heard about this in my government class, and was quite intrigued by it. Many freed blacks had nowhere to begin once they were freed, and didn’t know where to start. In an attempt to earn money and have a job, they would form an agreement with an employer to work on the plantation and earn money. They would promise to give a certain percentage of their earnings to the employer, along with the money owed for the food, clothing, tools, and other necessities that the employer would provide. At the end, the employer would declare that even after the money given to them, the sharecropper still owed more money. So, the sharecropper, now being in debt, would continue to work through this entire cycle, promising an even larger percentage of their earnings to the employer. In this way, freedmen essentially became “slaves” all over again, to the benefit of plantation owners and employers.