REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH 



began gathering together the fragments of assets to re- 

 build a new Southern life and economy. The much 

 maligned sharecropper system was the natural answer 

 to the challenge of the enormous economic and social 

 revolution forced by the freeing of the slaves. The 

 plantation owners had land and some farming tools, 

 but no money to hire labor. The freed Negroes had 

 nothing except their naked hands and training in cul- 

 tivating the great staple crops of cotton and tobacco 

 upon which the whole Southern economy had been 

 based. 



"Stay in the cabins/* said the landowners. "Till the 

 fields you have always done. As in the past I will pro- 

 vide the ploughs and hoes, the mules, seed and fertil- 

 izer. You must eat, but I can no longer feed you, so I 

 will mortgage the harvest in order that we can all keep 

 body and soul together till I can sell the crop. Then I 

 will pay back what I have borrowed and we will divide 

 what is left over." 



It was just as simple as that in the beginning, and 

 just as inevitable what else could either do? and just 

 as fair, the very fairest of all possible labor contracts, 

 division upon the basis of profit-sharing. But from the 

 very start it struggled under the load that has sunk 

 more brave sound business enterprises than all other 

 reasons combined: inadequate working capital; the load 

 of debt. If you would understand the sharecropper sys- 

 tem, read Chapter XXI of Will Percy's wholly delight- 



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