Alabama tenant Farmers & Sharecroppers 1865 --Present

1. 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.

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

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

4. 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?

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

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

12. 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

13. Problems of tenant Farmers • Poor transportation: few hard surface roads • Poor diet • Lack of sanitation • Substandard housing • Health problems • Hookworms • Rickets • Pellagra http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613

14. 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

15. 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

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

17. 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

18. 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/bartonag/

19. 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

20. Bibliography • Encyclopedia of Alabama Retrieved on July 10, 2009 at http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1613