Sharecropping system
From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.
Sharecropping is a system of farming developed in the Reconstruction era after the United States Civil War. Under this system people without land could get jobs on a farm, working the land in return for a fraction of the crops. The arrangement was originally motivated by economic concerns; the landowners needed skilled labor, and the sharecroppers had neither land nor cash with which to acquire it. The arrangement also protected the sharecroppers from financial ruin in the event of a bad crop. Some landowners demanded such a large share of the crop that the sharecroppers were forced to remain living in poverty.
