3.12.13
Sharecropping and Tenant Farming
     After all of the former slaves were freed, they were jobless, penniless, and possessionless. Most of them lacked the skills to get a job. As a result two other options emerged: Sharecropping and Tenant farming. Sharecroppers were most commonly slaves who farmed off of their former masters' land. They had to pay rent to the actual owner in the form of giving up a portion (usually half) of their crop to the owner. All they had was their own family labor. The sharecroppers usually only produced enough to feed their own family. As a result, sharecroppers very rarely had the opportunity to earn enough money to take a step up in life. Tenant farming was the "step up" from sharecropping. These tenant farmers often owned farm tools and farm animals. The land house and land property, however, belonged to the landowner. Each year, the tenants paid the landowners in cash or crops. This was one of the relatively negative effects of Reconstruction: the fact that blacks could not thrive in life as well as white people did.
Sources:
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/northamerica/after1500/people/pictures/sharecropper.jpg
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brown/stfu.gif
Sharecropping:

Tenant farming: