Sharecropping, Essay Example

When General William T. Sherman granted each freed family 40 acres of land, the freed slaves finally hopes economic independency. But the happy news was short-lived as President Andrew Johnson ordered all land under federal control to be returned to their formal owners in the summer of 1865. Thus, the former slaves were left with two options only: either to work as laborers in exchange for wages or rent plots of land and share their crop with the land owners. Most of the freed slaves opted for land-rental which also came to be known as sharecropping (History.com n.d.). The freed slaves must have chosen land-rental over labor because it gave them some sense of control over destiny as well as autonomy.

Even though sharecropping did provide social freedom and autonomy but it turned out to be a bad economic deal for most of the freed slaves. First of all, sharecroppers started out with nothing which means not only they had to rent land but also tools and other supplies which raised the debt beyond their paying power. In addition, South was heavily reliant on cotton crop and while the sharecroppers were starting their new lives, cotton prices started a downward trend. This further worsened the economic condition of the sharecroppers (History.com n.d.).

Weak economic conditions also lead to weak negotiation power. Former slave-owners were as determined to keep freed slaves under control as the freed slaves were to protect their autonomy. The weak cotton prices also worked in favor of land owners and in addition, they would charge freed slaves exorbitant interest rates (sometimes as high as 70 percent a year) for goods bought on credit (University of Houston n.d.). These high interest rates and unfavorable negotiation terms ensured that most of the freed slaves would never achieve economic freedom and would have no choice but to be exploited by the land owners.

References

History.com. Sharecropping & “Forty Acres and a Mule”. http://www.history.com/topics/sharecropping#a2 (accessed March 19, 2012).

University of Houston. Sharecropping. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=130 (accessed March 19, 2012).