History

Vance Harmon

23 August, 09:21

A Sharecropping Contract: 1882 (Modified)

To everyone renting land, the following conditions must be agreed to:

For every 30 acres of land, I will provide a mule team, plow, and farming tools. The sharecroppers can have half of the cotton, corn, peas, pumpkins, and potatoes they grow if the following conditions are followed, but--if not--they are to have only two-fifths. The sale of every sharecropper's part of the cotton to be made by me when and where I choose to sell, and after taking all they owe me.

-Grimes Family Papers (#3357), 1882; Held in the Southern Historical Collection.

What is the best definition for sharecropping?

a) A social and economic change before the Civil War

b) An exploitive system endured for several generations

c) Abolishing slavery by the 13th amendment

d) Exploiting minorities in the north