sharecropper
Crop-splitting farmer
A sharecropper is a tenant farmer who works land owned by someone else in exchange for a share of the crop produced.
The system dominated the American South after the Civil War, often trapping Black farmers in cycles of debt to white landowners: Three generations of his family had been sharecroppers on that plantation.
The term now evokes poverty and exploitation.
Agriculture on leased property
- cottonPlant fiber for textiles
- tobaccoDried smoking leaf
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
- cultivationFostering growth through care
tillage · plow · hoe · fieldwork · planting · harvesting · sowing · acreage
Post-1865 national reunification period
- Jim CrowRacial separation laws
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- freedmenPeople released from slavery
- antebellumBefore a war's start
Great Migration · civil rights · segregation · disenfranchisement · plantation system · post-Civil War · cotton economy · New Deal
Property owner renting out
- tenantOne who rents property
- leaseTemporary use contract
- evictionForced departure from rental
- rentPayment for temporary use
landholder · overseer · cabin · shack · dwelling · property · tenement · plot
Move or progress forward
- creditRecognition or payment deferral
- settlementResolved dispute or colony
- povertySevere lack of resources
- subsistenceMinimal means of living
exploitation · indebtedness · landowner · contract · half-and-half · commissary · account book · reckoning
Research conducted on location
- pickingAct of selecting
- choppingCutting into pieces
- hoeingTilling with a blade
- plowingTurning earth for crops
harvesting · backbreaking · dawn to dusk · family labor · child labor · women workers · seasonal work · toil
tenant farming
Agriculture on leased property
- cottonPlant fiber for textiles
- tobaccoDried smoking leaf
- plantationLarge-scale farming operation
cultivation · tillage · plow · hoe · fieldwork · planting · harvesting · sowing · acreage · plot
Reconstruction
Post-1865 national reunification period
- Jim CrowRacial separation laws
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
- freedmenPeople released from slavery
antebellum · Great Migration · civil rights · segregation · disenfranchisement · plantation system · post-Civil War · cotton economy · New Deal · mechanization
landlord
Property owner renting out
rent · landholder · overseer · cabin · shack · dwelling · property · tenement · plot · acreage
advance
Move or progress forward
- creditRecognition or payment deferral
- settlementResolved dispute or colony
- povertySevere lack of resources
subsistence · exploitation · indebtedness · landowner · contract · half-and-half · commissary · account book · reckoning · hardship
fieldwork
Research conducted on location
plowing · harvesting · backbreaking · dawn to dusk · family labor · child labor · women workers · seasonal work · toil · drudgery
- farm workersfarmer, farmworker, hired hand, field hand, farm laborer
- farmersfarmer, grower, smallholder, cultivator, rancher
- farmworkharvesting, farmworkers, planting, farm labor, milking
- farmworkersfarmhand, farmworker, farm laborer, field hand, farm hand
- rural peoplefarmer, villagers, farmhand, farmworker, farmers
- farm laborfarmhands, farm labor, field hand, field hands, farm hand
sharecropperlandowner
One possessing real estate
landlord · plantation owner · landholder · planter · estate owner
sharecropperplantation owner
Agricultural estate proprietor
landlord · planter class · slaveholder · master · boss man