When Did Sharecropping Begin?

By the early 1870s, the system known as sharecropping had come to dominate agriculture across the cotton-planting South. Under this system, Black families would rent small plots of land, or shares, to work themselves; in return, they would give a portion of their crop to the landowner at the end of the year.

How did sharecropping begin?

After the Civil War, former slaves sought jobs, and planters sought laborers. The absence of cash or an independent credit system led to the creation of sharecropping. ... The Great Depression, mechanization, and other factors lead sharecropping to fade away in the 1940s.

How long did sharecropping last?

Sharecropping was widespread in the South during Reconstruction, after the Civil War. It was a way landowners could still command labor, often by African Americans, to keep their farms profitable. It had faded in most places by the 1940s. But not everywhere.