What kind of arrangement is agreed to in this contract?

Question

"...(The) said Cooper Hughs Freedman with his wife... are to work on said farm and to cultivate forty acres in corn and twenty acres in cotton, to assist in putting the fences on said farm in good order and to keep them so and to do all other work on said farm necessary to be done to keep the same in good order and to raise a good crop and to be under the control and directions of said IG Bailey and to receive for their said services one half of the cotton and one third of the corn and fodder raised by them on said farm in said year 1867....And the said IG Bailey party of the first part, agrees and binds himself to furnish necessary Mules and farming implements to cultivate said crop.."
--Contract, Marshall County, Mississippi, 1867
A. grandfather clause
B. ten percent plan
C. sharecropping
D. black codes

Answer 1

The arrangement described in the contract is best characterized by option C: sharecropping.

Sharecropping was a system that emerged in the Southern United States after the Civil War, where landowners would provide land, tools, and sometimes housing to workers, typically former enslaved people, who would then cultivate the land in exchange for a share of the crops produced. In this case, Cooper Hughs Freedman and his wife are expected to cultivate the land and are compensated with a share of the crops (one half of the cotton and one third of the corn and fodder). The contract also outlines responsibilities regarding the upkeep of the farm, which is typical of sharecropping arrangements.