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Sharecropping, a System Like No Other

Sharecropping set into Mississippi's economy, when traumatic economic hardships began after the Civil War. Sharecropping is an agricultural system, in which the farmers used land, tools and even the houses they lived in, and after harvesting, they paid the owner of the land, tools and house by giving him or her a portion of their harvest.

It was very difficult for sharecroppers to prosper and better their lives because of certain reasons.

Firstly, sharecroppers had to buy everything they needed, such as food, clothing, seeds, tools and sometimes shelter from the property owners. This left the sharecroppers little or no money to purchase other important things or to educate their children or themselves. Their kids for example, went to school for only six weeks, and they had to spend the rest of their time and years picking cotton. But before then credit, which was purchasing something now and settling debts later was very tight.

Illiterate as they were, they were cheated by both their landowners and storeowners from whom they bought items. The landowners usually called planters, arranged credit with the storeowners on behalf of the sharecropper. The storeowners charged higher prices for commodities on credit and higher interest rates than they ought to. Sometimes, even when the sharecroppers wanted to buy goods on cash, the storeowners sold it to them at cutthroat prices. In other cases, storeowners put inflation in place, just to collect more money from sharecroppers.

Inflation is when one commodity of less importance or value is attached to a necessity good. With all these cheatings on sharecroppers going on, sharecroppers were always in debt year after year. Many sharecroppers lost their independence to their landowners because they could not repay their debts. Sharecropping to many blacks, was like a second world of slavery.

Apart from sharecroppers being cheated with tools, seeds and credit, they were also ripped off their lands. It is known that the number of black landowners fell from about seven percent in 1900 to less than three percent in 1925. This was because they lost all their independence and properties to white landowners.

Not forgetting the landowners themselves, who benefitted from the sharecropping system. They helped in cheating blacks one way or the other. They placed blacks in debts, so that they can keep them on their plantations. They kept black sharecroppers in near slavery, making them do everything they wanted.

Sometimes, even these landowners ripped black sharecroppers of their lands in order to pay their debts. When harvested crops were given to them to sell, they kept part of the money before presenting the rest. The landowners shared the rest of the money with the sharecroppers, keeping most of the profit as if it was a fair market.

Learn more about this author, Maggie Mbroh.
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