What does sharecropping mean?
Sharecropping is a form of agricultural tenancy in which a farmer works land owned by someone else and receives a share of the crop produced. The arrangement might also involve the landowner supplying housing, tools, seed, or other assistance, but terms varied widely by contract. It became especially associated with the American South after the Civil War, when formerly enslaved people and other land-poor farmers continued to work agricultural land under contracts requiring them to give part of their harvest to the landowner. Although the arrangement gave some families access to land and income, it was also associated with fragile contracts, excessive debt, and exploitation. In its modern historical usage, sharecropping therefore signifies both a particular economic system and the unequal power relations that often shaped it.
An arrangement in which a tenant farmer cultivates land owned by another person and receives a share of the resulting crop.
"The records reveal that the family relied on sharecropping for income for several decades."
Now chiefly historical and especially associated with tenant farming in the United States.
To farm land owned by another person in return for a share of the crop produced.
"After emancipation, several families sharecropped on land still controlled by white landowners."
This form is less common today than the noun and is mainly found in historical discussion.
The standard plural of the noun sharecropper; the gerund sharecropping is normally uncountable.
"The oral histories include testimonies from former sharecroppers across the county."
After the Civil War, sharecropping offered formerly enslaved people access to land, but contracts and debts often kept many families trapped in exploitation.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does sharecropping come from?
Sharecropping is a compound formed in the nineteenth century from share and crop, with the sense of cultivating a crop and giving a portion of it to another person. Crop derives from Old English crop, referring to the produce of the earth or the upper part of a plant, while share in this sense derives from Old English scearu, a partition or portion. The related occupational term sharecropper arose from the same compounding pattern.
Related word forms
How sharecropping is actually used
The term is chiefly associated with the United States, especially with post-Civil War history in the South. It usually carries a historical or critical connotation because sharecropping contracts often placed disproportionate control and economic risk with tenant farmers.