"I, Solomon Bell (freedman), do hereby contract with Thomas Watson, planter, to labor on his plantation for the year 1867. I am to receive one-third of the cotton and corn produced. The said Watson shall furnish land, seed, and tools. I shall obey all reasonable orders and shall not leave the premises without permission." — Sharecropping contract, Mississippi, 1867
Compared to antebellum slavery, sharecropping differed most importantly in that workers:
- Acheck_circle
Could legally negotiate, refuse, and (in theory) move between contracts
- B
Earned wages comparable to Northern factory workers
- C
Owned the tools and seeds used in cultivation
- D
Were exempt from state criminal vagrancy laws
Explanation
Sharecroppers held legal personhood and could in theory negotiate or change contracts, unlike slaves; in practice, debt peonage, vagrancy laws, and violence sharply constrained that freedom.