Sharecropping is a form of agriculture in which a laborer farms a piece of land by contract with the landowner. The landowner receives a share of the crop . The laborers who grow the crop are called sharecroppers. They often receive the use of the land as well as a home, food, seed, fertilizer, and tools in exchange for at least half the crop they raise.
After slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865, sharecropping developed as a common arrangement between former slaves and plantation owners. Poor whites also became sharecroppers. By 1900, more than 250,000 farmers in the U.S. South were sharecroppers. The number of sharecroppers peaked at roughly 800,000 in 1930 during the Great Depression , a worldwide economic slump. After World War II (1939-1945), new agricultural technologies, such as the mechanical cotton picker, led to a decline in sharecropping. By 1960, only about 120,000 sharecroppers remained.
Sharecropping is based on the idea of dividing a crop evenly. But in practice, it was frequently an unfair arrangement for the sharecroppers. Many were cheated of their share of the crops. Few made a significant profit from their work. Beginning in the early 1900’s, hundreds of thousands of sharecroppers left the South to work in northern cities. This transition became known as the Great Migration .
Sharecropping is a form of tenant farming, in which farmers pay rent to a landowner. Other kinds of tenant farmers were typically wealthier than sharecroppers and could pay rent with cash instead of with harvested crops. Sharecropping has been practiced in some form in most agricultural societies. The ancient Romans made use of sharecroppers. Between the 400’s and 1400’s, a period known as the Middle Ages , sharecropping was common in Europe and in the Middle East. Today, sharecropping is still practiced in parts of Africa and South Asia.
