ALABAMA TENANT

FARMERS&

SHARECROPPERS

1865 --PRESENT

Created by: Mrs. V. LooserLanett High School, Lanett City Schools, Lanett, AlabamaThis lesson was created as a part of the Alabama History Education Initiative, funded by a generous grant from the Malone Family Foundation in 2009.

http://www.spendersworktown.boltonmuseums.org.uk/collections/local-history/slavery-and-bolton/cotton-is-king/

http://216.226.178.196/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/photo&CISOPTR=3195&CISOBOX=1&REC=15

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?

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 dropped Almost no farm income Landowners had no money to pay

wages to freedmen or poor whites

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 economy If a freedman only had his labor to offer,

he typically got ⅓ of crop If he had animals and equipment, he

typically got ½ of crop

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

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

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

TENANT FARMER ARRANGEMENT Landowner provided: Land Seed, fertilizer Plow and animals Food and personal

items (clothes, snuff, etc.)

Commissary (store) provided supplies for mortgage (crop lien) on the crop to be harvested

Average 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

LIFESTYLE OF TENANT FARMER

Homes: Log cabins or dog trot houses

No indoor plumbing

No windows or screens, only shutters

Outdoor privies Water from wells or

creekshttp://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613

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

PROBLEMS OF TENANT FARMERS Poor

transportation: few hard surface roads

Poor diet Lack of

sanitation Substandard

housing

Health problemsHookwormsRicketsPellagra

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613

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

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/b

iographiesDisplay.php?id=57

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-1613http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613

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 industries

END OF THE TENANT FARMER Depression World War II Machinery replaced

people Tractors Mechanical cotton

picker replaced the hand picker

One picker could pick 1000 more pounds of cotton in one hour than a human http://jddealer.deere.com/ba

rtonag/

TENANT FARMERS TODAY 2002 Alabama

Census Data:62,572 Farm

operators2,063 Tenants

(3.3%)No Sharecroppers

listed

http://www.foodroutes.org/ffarticle.jsp?id=2

BIBLIOGRAPHY Encyclopedia of Alabama Retrieved on

July 10, 2009 at http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613