The Reign of King Cotton

Postwar Changes to Texas Farming

Main Idea: After the Civil War, life in Texas changes dramatically.

Economic problems led to a return to the small family farm, and the freed slaves faced the problems of earning a living in conditions that were often unfair.

After the Civil War most citizens were financially ruined, especially Texans since they were part of the COnfederacy..

To survive, many Texans started growing their own food on small family farms.

Many of them became tenant farmers on land they rented from landowners.

Most tenant farmers never made enough extra money to buy the land they farmed.

Tenant farmers too poor to pay their rent in cash were called sharecroppers.

This is because they paid rent with a share of their crops.

Many sharecroppers had to buy basic supplies on credit.

This made it even more difficult for them to break out of poverty.

The failing economy was not the only change after the Civil War.

Thousands of Texans lost fathers, husbands, and brothers during the war.

Another social change was that African Americans were freedmen.

Many white Texans were angry about the outcome of the war and made lives of African Americans more difficult.

Like white Texans, freedmen were also looking for jobs.

But there were not enough jobs to be had.

Many African Americans became sharecroppers.

Like poor whites, they too had entered the cycle of debt that was difficult to break.