Wikipedia

Sharecropping

(Redirected fromSharecroppers)
Not to be confused withCropsharing.

Sharecroppingis a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated withtenant farming,providing the tenant a higher economic and social status.

AFarm Security Administrationphoto of a cropper family chopping the weeds from cotton nearWhite Plains,in Georgia, US (1941)

Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range of different situations and types of agreements that have used a form of the system. Some are governed by tradition, and others by law. TheFrenchmétayage,theCatalanmasoveria,theCastilianmediero,theSlavicpołownictwoandizdolshchina, theItalianmezzadria,and theIslamic systemofmuzara‘a(المزارعة), are examples of legal systems that have supported sharecropping.

Overview

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Under a sharecropping system, landowners provided a share of land to be worked by the sharecropper, and usually provided other necessities such as housing, tools, seed, orworking animals.[1]Local merchants usually provide food and other supplies to the sharecropper on credit. In exchange for the land and supplies, the cropper would pay the owner a share of the crop at the end of the season, typically one-half to two-thirds. The cropper used his share to pay off their debt to the merchant.[2]If there was any cash left over, the cropper kept it—but if their share came to less than what they owed, they remained in debt.

A new system of credit, thecrop lien,became closely associated with sharecropping. Under this system, a planter or merchant extended a line of credit to the sharecropper while taking the year's crop as collateral. The sharecropper could then draw food and supplies all year long. When the crop was harvested, the planter or merchants who held the lien sold the harvest for the sharecropper and settled the debt.

Sociologist Jeffery M. Paige made a distinction between centralized sharecropping found on cotton plantations and the decentralized sharecropping with other crops. The former is characterized by long lasting tenure. Tenants are tied to the landlord through theplantation store.This form of tenure tends to be replaced by paid salaries as markets penetrate. Decentralized sharecropping involves virtually no role for the landlord: plots are scattered, peasants manage their own labor and the landowners do not manufacture the crops. This form of tenure becomes more common when markets penetrate.[3]

Farmers who farmed land belonging to others but owned their own mule and plow were calledtenant farmers;they owed the landowner a smaller share of their crops, as the landowner did not have to provide them with as much in the way of supplies.

Application by region

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Historically, sharecropping occurred extensively inScotland,Irelandand colonialAfrica.Use of the sharecropper system has also been identified in England (as the practice of "farming to halves" ).[4]It was widely used in theSouthern United Statesduring theReconstructionera (1865–1877) that followed theAmerican Civil War,which was economically devastating to the Southern states.[5]It is still used in many rural poor areas of the world today, notably inPakistan,India,andBangladesh.[6][7][8]

Africa

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In settler colonies of colonial Africa, sharecropping was a feature of the agricultural life. White farmers, who owned most of the land, were frequently unable to work the whole of their farm for lack of capital. They, therefore, had African farmers to work the excess on a sharecropping basis.

In South Africa the 1913Natives' Land Act[9]outlawed the ownership of land by Africans in areas designated for white ownership and effectively reduced the status of most sharecroppers totenant farmersand then to farm laborers. In the 1960s, generous subsidies to white farmers meant that most farmers could afford to work their entire farms, and sharecropping faded out.

The arrangement has reappeared in other African countries in modern times, includingGhana[10]andZimbabwe.[11]

Economic historian Pius S. Nyambara argued thatEurocentrichistoriographical devices such as "feudalism" or "slavery" often qualified by weak prefixes like "semi-" or "quasi-" are not helpful in understanding the antecedents and functions of sharecropping in Africa.[11]

United States

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Sharecroppers on the roadside after they were evicted for membership in theSouthern Tenant Farmers Union(January 1936)
Further information:Black land loss in the United States,African-American history of agriculture in the United States,andJim Crow economy

Prior to the Civil War, sharecropping is known to have existed inMississippiand is believed to have been in place inTennessee.[12][13]However, it was not until the economic upheaval caused by theAmerican Civil Warand the end of slavery during and afterReconstructionthat it became widespread in the South.[14][5]It is theorized that sharecropping in the United States originated in theNatchez District,roughly centered inAdams County, Mississippiwith its county seat,Natchez.[15]

After the war, plantations and other lands throughout the South were seized by the federal government. In January 1865, GeneralWilliam T. ShermanissuedSpecial Field Orders No. 15,which announced that he would temporarily grant newly freed families 40 acres of this seized land on the islands and coastal regions ofGeorgia.Many believed that this policy would be extended to all formerly enslaved people and their families as repayment for their treatment at the end of the war. In the summer of 1865, PresidentAndrew Johnson,as one of the first acts of Reconstruction, instead ordered all land under federal control be returned to the owners from whom it had been seized.

An early 20th centuryTexassharecropper's home diorama at theAudie Murphy American Cotton Museum,inGreenville, Texas2015

Southern landowners thus found themselves with a great deal of land but no liquid assets to pay for labor. They also maintained the "belief that gangs afforded the most efficient means of labor organization", something nearly all formerly enslaved people resisted. Preferring "to organize themselves into kin groups", as well as "minimize chances for white male-black female contact by removing their female kin from work environments supervised closely by whites", black southerners were "determined to resist the old slave ways".[16]Not with standing, many formerly enslaved people, now calledfreedmen,having no land or other assets of their own, needed to work to support their families. A sharecropping system centered oncotton,a majorcash crop,developed as a result. Large plantations were subdivided into plots that could be worked by sharecroppers. Initially, sharecroppers in the American South were almost all formerly enslaved black people, but eventually cash-strappedindigent whitefarmers were integrated into the system.[2][17]During Reconstruction, the federalFreedmen's Bureauordered the arrangements for freedmen and wrote and enforced their contracts.[18]

American sharecroppers worked a section of the plantation independently. In South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, the dominant crop was usually cotton. In other areas it could betobacco,rice,orsugar.At harvest time the crop was sold and the cropper received half of cash paid for the crop on his parcel.[19][20]Sharecroppers also often received their farming tools and all other goods from the landowner they were contracted with.[1]Landowners dictated decisions relating to the crop mix, and sharecroppers were often in agreements to sell their portion of the crop back to the landowner, thus being subjected to manipulated prices.[21]In addition to this, landowners, threatening to not renew the lease at the end of the growing season, were able to apply pressure to their tenants.[21]Sharecropping often proved economically problematic, as the landowners held significant economic control.[22]

Cotton sharecroppers,Hale County,Alabama,1936

In the Reconstruction Era, sharecropping was one of few options for pennilessfreedmento support themselves and their families. Other solutions included thecrop-lien system(where the farmer was extended credit for seed and other supplies by the merchant), a rent labor system (where the farmer rents the land but keeps their entire crop), and thewage system(worker earns a fixed wage but keeps none of their crop). Sharecropping as historically practiced in the American South was more economically productive than thegang systemplantations using enslaved workers, though less productive than modern agricultural techniques.[18][23]

Sharecropper's cabin displayed atLouisiana State Cotton MuseuminLake Providence,Louisiana(2013 photo)

Sharecropping continued to be a significant institution in many states for decades following the Civil War. By the early 1930s, there were 5.5 million white tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and mixed cropping/laborers in the United States; and 3 million Blacks.[24][25]In Tennessee, sharecroppers operated approximately one-third of all farm units in the state in the 1930s, with white people making up two thirds or more of the sharecroppers.[13]In Mississippi, by 1900, 36% of all white farmers were tenants or sharecroppers, while 85% of black farmers were.[12]In Georgia, fewer than 16,000 farms were operated by black owners in 1910, while, at the same time, African-Americans managed 106,738 farms as tenants.[26]

Around this time, sharecroppers began to form unions protesting against poor treatment, beginning inTallapoosa County,Alabama in 1931 and Arkansas in 1934. Membership in theSouthern Tenant Farmers Unionincluded both blacks and poor whites, who used meetings, protests, andlabor strikesto push for better treatment. The success of these actions frightened and enraged landlords, who responded with aggressive tactics.[27]Landless farmers who fought the sharecropping system were socially denounced, harassed by legal and illegal means, and physically attacked by officials, landlords' agents, or in extreme cases, angry mobs.[28]Sharecroppers' strikes in Arkansas and theMissouri Bootheel,the 1939 Missouri Sharecroppers' Strike, were documented in thenewsreelOh Freedom After While.[29]The plight of a sharecropper was addressed in the songSharecropper's Blues,recorded byCharlie Barnet and His Orchestrain 1944.[30]

Sharecroppers' chapel at Cotton Museum in Lake Providence

The sharecropping system in the U.S. increased during theGreat Depressionwith the creation of tenant farmers following the failure of many small farms throughout theDustbowl.Traditional sharecropping declined aftermechanization of farm workbecame economical beginning in the late 1930s and early 1940s.[13][31]As a result, many sharecroppers were forced off the farms, and migrated to cities to work in factories, or becamemigrant workersin theWestern United StatesduringWorld War II.By the end of the 1960s, sharecropping had disappeared in the United States.[citation needed]

Sharecropping and socioeconomic status

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About two-thirds of sharecroppers were white, the rest black. Sharecroppers, the poorest of the poor, organized for better conditions. The racially integratedSouthern Tenant Farmers Unionmade gains for sharecroppers in the 1930s. Sharecropping had diminished in the 1940s due to the Great Depression, farm mechanization, and other factors.[32]

Impacts

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Thecommissaryorcompany storefor sharecroppers atLake Providence, Louisiana,as it appeared in the 19th century

Sharecropping may have been harmful to tenants, with many cases of high interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants often keeping tenant farm families severely indebted. The debt was often compounded year on year leaving the cropper vulnerable to intimidation and shortchanging.[33]Nevertheless, it appeared to be inevitable, with no serious alternative unless the croppers left agriculture.[34][35]

Landlords opt for sharecropping to avoid the administrative costs andshirkingthat occurs on plantations andhaciendas.It is preferred to cash tenancy because cash tenants take all the risks, and anyharvest failurewill hurt them and not the landlord. Therefore, they tend to demand lower rents than sharecroppers.[36]

Some economists have argued that sharecropping is not as exploitative as it is often perceived. John Heath and Hans P. Binswanger write that "evidence from around the world suggests that sharecropping is often a way for differently endowed enterprises to pool resources to mutual benefit, overcoming credit restraints and helping to manage risk."[37]

Sharecropping agreements can be made fairly, as a form oftenant farmingorsharefarmingthat has a variable rental payment, paid inarrears.There are three different types of contracts.[38]

  1. Workers can rent plots of land from the owner for a certain sum and keep the whole crop.
  2. Workers work on the land and earn a fixed wage from the land owner but keep some of the crop.
  3. No money changes hands but the worker and land owner each keep a share of the crop.

According to sociologist Edward Royce, "adherents of theneoclassicalapproach "argued that sharecropping incentivized laborers by giving them a vested interest in the crop. American plantations were wary of this interest, as they felt that would lead to African Americans demanding rights of partnership. Many black laborers denied the unilateral authority that landowners hoped to achieve, further complicating relations between landowners and sharecroppers.[21]

Sharecropping may allow women to have access toarable land,albeit not as owners, in places where ownership rights are vested only in men.[39]

Economic theories of share tenancy

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A sharecropper family inWalker County,Alabama (c. 1937)

The theory of share tenancy was long dominated byAlfred Marshall's famous footnote in Book VI, Chapter X.14 ofPrinciples[40]where he illustrated the inefficiency of agricultural share-contracting.Steven N.S. Cheung(1969),[41]challenged this view, showing that with sufficient competition and in the absence of transaction costs, share tenancy will be equivalent to competitive labor markets and therefore efficient.[42]

He also showed that in the presence of transaction costs, share-contracting may be preferred to either wage contracts or rent contracts—due to the mitigation of labor shirking and the provision of risk sharing.Joseph Stiglitz(1974,[43]1988),[44]suggested that if share tenancy is only a labor contract, then it is only pairwise-efficient and that land-to-the-tiller reform would improve social efficiency by removing the necessity for labor contracts in the first place.

Reid (1973),[45]Murrel (1983),[46]Roumasset (1995)[47]and Allen and Lueck (2004)[48]providedtransaction costtheories of share-contracting, wherein tenancy is more of a partnership than a labor contract and both landlord and tenant provide multiple inputs. It has also been argued that the sharecropping institution can be explained by factors such asinformational asymmetry(Hallagan, 1978;[49]Allen, 1982;[50]Muthoo, 1998),[51]moral hazard(Reid, 1976;[52]Eswaran and Kotwal, 1985;[53]Ghatakand Pandey, 2000),[54] intertemporal discounting(Roy and Serfes, 2001),[55]price fluctuations (Sen, 2011)[56]orlimited liability(Shetty, 1988;[57]Basu,1992;[58]Sengupta, 1997;[59]Ray and Singh, 2001).[60]

See also

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References

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  1. ^abMandle, Jay R. Not Slave, Not Free: The African American Economic Experience Since the Civil War. Duke University Press, 1992, 22.
  2. ^abRonald L. F. Davis "The U. S. Army and the Origins of Sharecropping in the Natchez District—A Case Study"The Journal of Negro History,Vol. 62, No.1 (January 1977), pp. 60–80in JSTOR
  3. ^Jeffery Paige,Agrarian Revolution,page 373
  4. ^Griffiths, LizFarming to Halves: A New Perspective on an Absurd and Miserable Systemin Rural History Today, Issue 6:2004 p.5, accessed at British Agricultural History Society, 16 February 2013.
  5. ^abJoseph D. Reid, "Sharecropping as an understandable market response: The postbellum South."Journal of Economic History(1973) 33#1 pp. 106–130.in JSTOR
  6. ^Sanval, Nasim; Steven, Helfand (2016-01-15).Optimal groundwater management in Pakistan's Indus Water Basin.Intl Food Policy Res Inst.
  7. ^Chaudhuri, Ananish; Maitra, Pushkar (2000-01-01)."Sharecropping contracts in rural India: A note".Journal of Contemporary Asia.30(1): 99–107.doi:10.1080/00472330080000071.ISSN0047-2336.S2CID154416728.
  8. ^Byres, T. J. (2005-08-02).Sharecropping and Sharecroppers.Routledge.ISBN978-1-135-78003-6.
  9. ^"The Native Land Act is passed | South African History Online".Sahistory.org.za.Archived fromthe originalon 14 October 2010.Retrieved22 October2023.
  10. ^Leonard, R. and Longbottom, J.,Land Tenure Lexicon: A glossary of terms from English and French speaking West Africa[permanent dead link‍]International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London, 2000
  11. ^abPius S. Nyambara (2003)."Rural Landlords, Rural Tenants, and the Sharecropping Complex in Gokwe, Northwestern Zimbabwe, 1980s–2002"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2006-03-26.Retrieved2006-05-18.,Centre for Applied Social Sciences, University of Zimbabwe and Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, March 2003 (200Kb PDF)
  12. ^abCharles Bolton, "Farmers Without Land: The Plight of White Tenant Farmers and SharecroppersArchived2016-03-04 at theWayback Machine",Mississippi History Now,March 2004.
  13. ^abcRobert Tracy McKenzie, "Sharecropping",Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.
  14. ^Sharon Monteith, ed. (2013).The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American South.Cambridge U.P. p. 94.ISBN9781107036789.
  15. ^Ronald L. F. Davis "The U. S. Army and the Origins of Sharecropping in the Natchez District—A Case Study"The Journal of Negro History,Vol. 62, No.1 (January, 1977), pp. 60–80in JSTOR
  16. ^Jones, Jaqueline.Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family from Slavery to the Present.Basic Books, 1985.
  17. ^Eva O'Donovan,Becoming Free in the Cotton South(2007); Gavin Wright,Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy Since the Civil War(1986); Roger L. Ransom and David Beckham,One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation(2nd ed. 2008)
  18. ^abGregorie, Anne King (1954).History of Sumter County, South Carolina, p. 274.Library Board of Sumter County.
  19. ^Woodman, Harold D. (1995).New South – New Law: The legal foundations of credit and labor relations in the Postbellum agricultural South.Louisiana State University Press.ISBN0-8071-1941-5.
  20. ^F. N. Boney (2004-02-06)."Poor Whites".The New Georgia Encyclopedia.Archived fromthe originalon 2012-08-29.Retrieved2006-05-18.
  21. ^abcRoyce, Edward (1993). "The Rise of Southern Sharecropping". In Royce, Edward (ed.).The Origins of Southern Sharecropping.Temple University Press. pp. 181–222.ISBN9781566390699.JSTORj.ctt14bt3nz.9.
  22. ^Ransom, Roger L., and Richard Sutch.One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation.2nd edition. Cambridge England ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001, 149.
  23. ^Larry J. Griffin; Don Harrison Doyle (1995).The South As an American Problem.U. of Georgia Press. p.168.ISBN9780820317526.
  24. ^The Rockabilly Legends; They Called It Rockabilly Long Before they Called It Rock and Roll by Jerry Naylor and Steve Halliday DVD
  25. ^The Devil's Music: A History of the Blues By Giles Oakley Edition: 2. Da Capo Press, 1997, p. 184.ISBN0-306-80743-2,ISBN978-0-306-80743-5
  26. ^Geisen, James C. (January 26, 2007)."Sharecropping".New Georgia Encyclopedia.RetrievedApril 23,2019.
  27. ^The Devil's Music: A History of the Blues By Giles Oakley Edition: 2. Da Capo Press, 1997, p. 185. ISBN0-306-80743-2,ISBN978-0-306-80743-5
  28. ^Sharecroppers All.Arthur F. Raper and Ira De A. Reid. Chapell Hill 1941. The University of North Carolina Press, 2011,ISBN978-0-8078-9817-8
  29. ^"California Newsreel - Film and Video for Social Change Since 1968".Newsreel.org.Retrieved22 October2023.
  30. ^Charlie Barnet - Sharecropper's Blues.YouTube.26 August 2011.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-11-09.
  31. ^Gordon Marshall, "Sharecropping,"Encyclopedia.com,1998.
  32. ^"Sharecropping".Slavery by Another Name.PBS.Retrieved7 December2021.
  33. ^"Sharecropping | Slavery By Another Name Bento | PBS".Sharecropping | Slavery By Another Name Bento | PBS.
  34. ^Rufus B. Spain (1967).At Ease in Zion: Social History of Southern Baptists, 1865-1900.University of Alabama Press. p. 130.ISBN9780817350383.
  35. ^Johnny E. Williams (2008).African American Religion and the Civil Rights Movement in Arkansas.Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 73.ISBN9781604731866.
  36. ^Sharecropping and Sharecroppers, T J Byres
  37. ^ Heath, John & Binswanger, Hans P. (October 1998)."Chapter 3: Policy-Induced Effects of Natural Resource Degradation: The Case of Colombia"(PDF).In Lutz, Ernest (ed.).Agriculture and the Environment: Perspectives on Sustainable Rural Development.Washington, DC:The World Bank.pp.32.ISBN0-8213-4249-5.Retrieved2011-04-01.
  38. ^Arthur F. Raper and Ira De A. Reid,Sharecroppers All(1941); Gavin Wright,Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy since the Civil War(1986).
  39. ^Bruce, John W.-Country Profiles of Land Tenure: Africa, 1996(Lesotho, p. 221) Research Paper No. 130, December 1998, Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison accessed atUMN.eduArchived2001-11-25 at theWayback MachineJune 19, 2006
  40. ^Alfred Marshall (1920).Principles of Economics(8th ed.). London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.
  41. ^Cheung, Steven N S (1969)."Transaction Costs, Risk Aversion, and the Choice of Contractual Arrangements".Journal of Law & Economics.12(1): 23–42.doi:10.1086/466658.S2CID154860968.Retrieved2009-06-14.
  42. ^Formalized inRoumasset, James (1979). "Sharecropping, Production Externalities and the Theory of Contracts".American Journal of Agricultural Economics.61(4): 640–647.doi:10.2307/1239911.JSTOR1239911.
  43. ^Stiglitz, Joseph(1974)."Incentives and Risk Sharing in Sharecropping"(PDF).The Review of Economic Studies.41(2): 219–255 j.doi:10.2307/2296714.JSTOR2296714.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2019-04-27.Retrieved2019-07-06.
  44. ^Stiglitz, Joseph(1988)."Principal And Agent".Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School – Discussion Paper(12).Retrieved2009-06-14.
  45. ^Reid, Joseph D. Jr.(March 1973). "Sharecropping As An Understandable Market Response: The Post-Bellum South".The Journal of Economic History.33(1): 106–130.doi:10.1017/S0022050700076476.JSTOR2117145.S2CID155056632.
  46. ^Murrell, Peter (Spring 1983). "The Economics of Sharing: A Transactions Cost Analysis of Contractual Choice in Farming".The Bell Journal of Economics.14(1): 283–293.doi:10.2307/3003555.JSTOR3003555.
  47. ^Roumasset, James (March 1995). "The nature of the agricultural firm".Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.26(2): 161–177.doi:10.1016/0167-2681(94)00007-2.
  48. ^Allen, Douglas W.; Dean Lueck (2004).The Nature of the Farm: Contracts, Risk, and Organization in Agriculture.MIT Press.p. 258.ISBN9780262511858.
  49. ^Hallagan, William (1978). "Self-selection by contractual choice and the theory of sharecropping".Bell Journal of Economics.9(2): 344–354.doi:10.2307/3003586.JSTOR3003586.
  50. ^Allen, Franklin (1982). "On share contracts and screening".Bell Journal of Economics.13(2): 541–547.doi:10.2307/3003473.JSTOR3003473.
  51. ^Muthoo, Abhinay(1998). "Renegotiation-proof tenurial contracts as screening mechanisms".Journal of Development Economics.56:1–26.doi:10.1016/S0304-3878(98)00050-9.
  52. ^Reid, Joseph D. Jr. (1976). "Sharecropping and agricultural uncertainty".Economic Development and Cultural Change.24(3): 549–576.doi:10.1086/450897.JSTOR1153005.S2CID154402121.
  53. ^Eswaran, Mukesh; Ashok Kotwal (1985). "A theory of contractual structure in agriculture".American Economic Review.75(3): 352–367.JSTOR1814805.
  54. ^Ghatak, Maitreesh;Priyanka Pandey (2000). "Contract choice in agriculture with joint moral hazard in effort and risk".Journal of Development Economics.63(2): 303–326.doi:10.1016/S0304-3878(00)00116-4.
  55. ^Roy, Jaideep; Konstantinos Serfes (2001). "Intertemporal discounting and tenurial contracts".Journal of Development Economics.64(2): 417–436.doi:10.1016/S0304-3878(00)00144-9.
  56. ^Sen, Debapriya (2011)."A theory of sharecropping: the role of price behavior and imperfect competition"(PDF).Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.80(1): 181–199.doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2011.03.006.S2CID191253.
  57. ^Shetty, Sudhir (1988). "Limited liability, wealth differences, and the tenancy ladder in agrarian economies".Journal of Development Economics.29:1–22.doi:10.1016/0304-3878(88)90068-5.
  58. ^Basu, Kaushik(1992)."Limited liability and the existence of share tenancy"(PDF).Journal of Development Economics.38:203–220.doi:10.1016/0304-3878(92)90026-6.
  59. ^Sengupta, Kunal (1997). "Limited liability, moral hazard and share tenancy".Journal of Development Economics.52(2): 393–407.doi:10.1016/S0304-3878(96)00444-0.
  60. ^Ray, Tridip; Nirvikar Singh (2001). "Limited liability, contractual choice and the tenancy ladder".Journal of Development Economics.66:289–303.doi:10.1016/S0304-3878(01)00163-8.

Further reading

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