Sharecropping Thesis

Thesis: Sharecropping provided African Americans limited opportunity, racial discontent, and another means to control the newly freed population. ¬ The end of slavery provided African Americans with a new start at life. Congressional support through Reconstruction hindered their success with the introduction of President Andrew Johnson. Johnson was not a champion of black people’s rights, moreover, his intent was to reduce the racial problems to each individual state. Racial tensions soared throughout the South with the new-found freedom of African Americans. Sharecropping provided African Americans limited opportunity, racial discontent, and another means to control the newly freed population. Abolishing slavery did not abolish hardened

Grant black people what they wanted: land ownership. This ownership came with a price. A majority of landowners lost their labor with the Emancipation Proclamation. These landowners devised a system of land ownership that would give the black people what they wanted, however, it would come at a price. Labor contracts laid out strict working regulations and crop leans that would indebt the sharecroppers to the landowners in an endless cycle year after year. Along with the harsh labor contracts, freedmen and their families had to endure racial hostility. They lived in seclusion among other sharecroppers for numerous reasons. Safety was a main concern. A slight step out of line would cause an angry anti-abolitionist or Lost Cause survivor to threaten their livelihood. These threats could also mean even death. Landowners often put more on strain on their sharecroppers to make sure they stayed in debt to them keeping the cycle of semi-free labor ongoing. Andrew Johnson allowed southern states to rectify their racial problems. Out of these problems arose the Black Codes. The inferior blacks needed guidance in their newly found freedom. The Black Codes would save them from themselves. These codes restricted who they could work for. Did not allow them to own guns, quit their jobs, restricted their movement, and did not allow vagrancy. A softer form of slavery, without the actual term in