amp Sharecroppers 1865 Present Created by Mrs V Looser Lanett High School Lanett City Schools Lanett Alabama This lesson was created as a part of the Alabama History Education Initiative funded by a generous grant from the Malone Family Foundation in 2009 ID: 534087
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Slide1
Alabama tenant Farmers& Sharecroppers1865 --Present
Created by: Mrs. V. Looser
Lanett High School, Lanett City Schools, Lanett, Alabama
This lesson was created as a part of the Alabama History Education Initiative, funded by a generous grant from the Malone Family Foundation in 2009.Slide2
http://www.spendersworktown.boltonmuseums.org.uk/collections/local-history/slavery-and-bolton/cotton-is-king/Slide3
http://216.226.178.196/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/photo&CISOPTR=3195&CISOBOX=1&REC=15
Slide4
Picture Comparison
What did you see in the first picture?
What did you see in the second picture?
Are there similarities? Are there differences ?
What time period do you think they represent?How do you think that these photographs would compare with what you have read about slavery? Have the lives of African-Americans changed much since they were enslaved based upon these photos?Slide5
Alabama: 1865
Slaves were freed in July, 1865 by the proclamation of Governor Lewis E. Parsons
Freed slaves left plantations to move to cities or to look for their family members
Freedmen’s Bureau did not deliver “40 acres and a mule”
Land values droppedAlmost no farm incomeLandowners had no money to pay wages to freedmen or poor whitesSlide6
Economic Dilemma
Whites owned most of the land suitable for agriculture, but had no cash
Freedmen would have to make up the farm work force
Freedmen only had their ability to work
Share-based system developed to revive the farm economyIf a freedman only had his labor to offer, he typically got ⅓ of cropIf he had animals and equipment, he typically got ½ of cropSlide7
Acceptance of system
Poor whites had poverty level existence
Freedmen had independence
Planters got their land cultivated
Whites continued to dominate Blacks
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613
Slide8
Levels of Sharecroppers
Sharecroppers divided by ability to furnish supplies and amount of crop they could keep
Cash renting was arrangement where rent was paid for use of the land
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613
Slide9
New Farm system Developed
Many poor whites moved to farms in Tennessee Valley and Wiregrass areas
Many Freedmen dominated farms in the Black Belt area
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613
Slide10
Tenant Farmer Arrangement
Landowner provided:
Land
Seed, fertilizer
Plow and animalsFood and personal items (clothes, snuff, etc.)Commissary (store) provided supplies for mortgage (crop lien) on the crop to be harvestedAverage income: 65 cents per day
If crop failed or was poor, debt was carried over to next year
Result was debt peonage
If a profit was made, animals and equipment were purchased to try to improve standard of living Slide11
Lifestyle of Tenant Farmer
Homes: Log cabins or dog trot houses
No indoor plumbing
No windows or screens, only shutters
Outdoor priviesWater from wells or creeks
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613
Slide12
Lifestyle continued
Diet: mainly cornbread, corn mush, fatback pork, molasses
Vegetables only if owner allowed a garden on the land
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613
Slide13
Problems of tenant Farmers
Poor transportation: few hard surface roads
Poor diet
Lack of sanitation
Substandard housingHealth problemsHookwormsRicketsPellagra
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613
Slide14
Boll Weevil
Boll Weevil destroyed cotton crops in early 1900s
Wiregrass area turned to peanut production
Enterprise built statue to the boll weevil
http://troymaxwell.com/?s=boll+weevil
Slide15
Great Migration
Large numbers of Blacks left the South to move North
Blacks left to escape racial prejudice and Jim Crow Laws
More job opportunities in the North
http://www.daahp.wayne.edu/biographiesDisplay.php?id=57
Slide16
Poor Whites
Dominated system of tenant farming
Plight of farmer made known by novels of William Faulkner
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
by James Agee and Walker Evans
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1813
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613Slide17
Depression Era Farms
By 1930s:
Tenant Farmers-65% of all farmers in Alabama
Sharecroppers: 39% of the tenant farmers
By 1954: Tenant farmers-37% of all farmers in Alabama Sharecroppers-27% of the tenant farmers
New Deal programs offered subsidies to landowners
Subsidies were not shared with tenant farmers
Many were forced off of the land
Many were drafted into WWII military
Many worked in military camps and industriesSlide18
End of the Tenant Farmer
Depression
World War II
Machinery replaced people
TractorsMechanical cotton picker replaced the hand pickerOne picker could pick 1000 more pounds of cotton in one hour than a human
http://jddealer.deere.com/bartonag/
Slide19
Tenant Farmers Today
2002 Alabama Census Data:
62,572 Farm operators
2,063 Tenants (3.3%)
No Sharecroppers listed
http://www.foodroutes.org/ffarticle.jsp?id=2
Slide20
Bibliography
Encyclopedia of Alabama
Retrieved on July 10, 2009 at
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613