Sharecropping was a system of agriculture that predominately affected Black farmers in the Southern United States following the abolition of slavery. After emancipation, many freed African Americans did not have access to land or resources to start their own farms. Plantation owners, on the other hand, still needed labor to work their fields.

In the sharecropping system, landowners would provide Black farmers with a plot of land, seeds, and farming tools in exchange for a share of the crops produced. The sharecroppers would then work the land and harvest the crops, often in grueling conditions and without access to proper equipment or resources.

Despite the promise of earning a living through sharecropping, many Black farmers found themselves trapped in cycles of debt and poverty. Landowners often charged high interest rates, manipulated crop prices, and withheld essential resources, leaving sharecroppers in perpetual debt.

Sharecropping became a symbol of the continued exploitation and economic oppression of Black farmers in the post-Civil War South. It was a system that kept many African Americans bound to the land and unable to escape the cycle of poverty and dependency on wealthy landowners.