What does sharecropper mean?
A sharecropper is a farmer who cultivates land belonging to someone else and gives the landowner a share of the harvest or profits. The term is chiefly associated with the United States, especially with the South after the American Civil War and emancipation. Many formerly enslaved people became sharecroppers because discriminatory laws, lack of capital, and limited access to land prevented them from establishing independent farms. Although the arrangement allowed some families to work land and earn a livelihood, landowners and merchants often retained control through debts, accounting practices, and contracts, leaving workers with little economic security. In literature, history, and discussions of rural poverty, “sharecropper” carries strong historical and social associations. Today it is used primarily when discussing this system, its participants, or its continuing effects. The related process is called sharecropping, while the broader category of a person farming rented land is a tenant farmer.
nounA tenant farmer who cultivates land owned by another person and gives the landowner a share of the resulting crop or profits, often under an arrangement that provides little security or economic benefit.
- A farmer who works land owned by someone else and gives the owner a portion of the harvest, especially under the historically exploitative sharecropping arrangements common in the United States.
"After emancipation, many formerly enslaved people in the American South became sharecroppers because they lacked the land and capital needed to establish farms independently."
"Her grandfather worked as a sharecropper and rarely earned enough to support his family."
"The history museum uses first-person accounts to describe the lives of sharecroppers in the rural South."
The regular plural is sharecroppers.
"Federal records helped historians trace the movements and working conditions of sharecroppers across several states."
Sharecropping spread across the post-emancipation South because freedom alone did not provide formerly enslaved people with land, tools, or the capital needed to become independent farmers.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does sharecropper come from?
The word is an American compound formed from share, crop, and the agent suffix -er, referring to someone who shares the crop with the owner of the land. Sharecropping arrangements were already present in the United States during the 19th century and became especially widespread in the South after the Civil War. The same period also produced closely related forms such as sharecrop, from which sharecropper was derived.
Related word forms
How sharecropper is actually used
The term is chiefly American and is especially associated with the post-Civil War South, where sharecropping often involved debt, withheld accounts, and exploitative contracts. In modern historical writing, it may also refer to comparable arrangements in other regions, but it is not generally used for ordinary commercial rent-sharing.
Easily confused with sharecropper
Sharecropping is the system or practice of farming land under a share-of-crop arrangement, whereas a sharecropper is the farmer who works under that arrangement.
A tenant farmer rents land from a landowner; a sharecropper is a more specific kind of tenant farmer who pays the rent with a share of the crop rather than primarily with money.