Sharecropper

After the Civil War, sharecropping spread across the South among both Black and white families who had land to work but no money to rent it. The owner supplied land, housing and often tools, seed and animals, and took a large share of the crop.

Many croppers bought supplies on credit against the coming harvest and stayed in debt. Census instructions for 1910 and 1920 told enumerators to list a cropper running a farm as farmer, so the word itself may not appear.