sharecropper

(noun)

A person who enters an agreement with a landowner to farm the land and then pays a portion (share) of the produce as rent. Landowners provide most or all of the resources needed to farm.

Related Terms

Examples of sharecropper in the following topics:

  • Agriculture, Tenancy, and the Environment

    • The sharecropper used his share to pay off his debt to the merchant.
    • By the 1880s, white farmers also became sharecroppers.
    • It was a stage beyond simple hired labor, because the sharecropper had an annual contract.
    • Though the arrangement protected sharecroppers from the negative effects of a bad crop, many sharecroppers (both black and white) were economically confined to serf-like conditions of poverty.
    • This system was distinct from the sharecropper.

  • Tenants, Sharecroppers, and Migrants

    • The transforming of the West in the late nineteenth century relied on various types of laborers–-tenants, sharecroppers, and migrants.
    • Tenant farming was historically a step on the "agricultural ladder" from hired hand or sharecropper taken by young farmers as they accumulated enough experience and capital to buy land (or buy out their siblings when a farm was inherited. ) In 1920, many came from Japan to the West Coast states.
    • A sharecropper is a farm tenant who pays rent with a portion (often half) of the crop he raises and who brings little to the operation besides his family labor; the landlord usually furnishing working stock, tools, fertilizer, housing, fuel, and seed, and often provided regular advice and oversight.
    • Examine the experience of tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and migrant workers in the late nineteenth century

  • Farm and Rural Programs

    • The AAA disproportionately benefited large farmers and food processors, to the disadvantage of small farmers and sharecroppers.
    • For example, the AAA stipulated that farmers were required to pay a share of the government funds they recieved (as part of the acre reduction contracts) to the tenant farmers and sharecroppers who held a portion of the farmland.

  • Minorities and the New Deal

    • The crisis in agriculture that began long before the onset of the Great Depression also greatly affected African Americans, many of whom still lived off the land, more often as sharecroppers and other tenants than landowners.
    • As subsidies were paid to (usually white) landlords for not growing certain crops on a part of their land, black (and white) sharecroppers and other tenants were the first victims of the new policy.

  • Neglected Americans and the New Deal

    • The crisis in agriculture that began long before the onset of the Great Depression also greatly affected African Americans, many of whom still lived off the land, more often as sharecroppers and other tenants than landowners.
    • As subsidies were paid to (usually white) landlords for not growing certain crops on a part of their land, black (and white) sharecroppers and other tenants were the first victims of the new policy.

  • The Gastonia Strike of 1929

    • Because of the large potential workforce of former sharecroppers and failed farmers, many northern industrialists moved south in search of a reduced cost of labor.

  • Agricultural Initiatives and Recovery

    • Many small landowners and tenants, particularly sharecroppers, were forced to leave rural areas and seek employment in economically struggling cities.

  • Devastation in the South

    • At harvest time, the sharecropper received a share of the crop (from one-third to one-half, with the landowner taking the rest and used his share to pay off his debt to the merchant.

  • Inadequate Currency

    • The credit system was used by land owners, sharecroppers, and tenant farmers.