1. Alabama tenant Farmers & Sharecroppers 1865 --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

3. http://216. 226. 178. 196/cdm4/item_viewer. php

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

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

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

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

12. Lifestyle continued
Diet: mainly cornbread, corn mush, fatback pork, molasses
Vegetables only if owner allowed a garden on the land

13. Problems of tenant Farmers
Poor transportation: few hard surface roads
Poor diet
Lack of sanitation
Substandard housing
Health problems
Hookworms
Rickets
Pellagra

14. Boll Weevil Boll Weevil destroyed cotton crops in early 1900s
Wiregrass area turned to peanut production
Enterprise built statue to the 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

16. Poor Whites Dominated system of tenant farming
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

17. Depression Era Farms By 1930s: By 1954:
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 more pounds of cotton in one hour than a human

19. Tenant Farmers Today 2002 Alabama Census Data: 62,572 Farm operators
2,063 Tenants (3.3%)
No Sharecroppers listed

20. Bibliography
Encyclopedia of Alabama Retrieved on July 10, 2009 at e/Article.jsp?id=h-1613