Family of Evicted Sharecroppers Resettled in Mississippi, July 1936

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Lange, Dorothea, "Family of one of the evicted sharecroppers from Arkansas who has been resettled at Hill House, Mississippi," July 1936

Description

Sharecroppers rented a plot of land and paid for it with a percentage of the crop, usually 50 percent. Sharecroppers would get tools, animals, fertilizer, seeds and food from the landlord's store and would have to pay him back at incredibly high interest rates. The landlord would determine the crop, supervise production, control the weighing and marketing of cotton and control the recordkeeping. The photo shows the family of one of the evicted sharecroppers from Arkansas who has been resettled in Hillhouse, Mississippi.

Source-Dependent Questions

Look closely at the photo. What do you notice about the people as well as their living and working conditions?
Sharecropping replaced slavery kept formerly enslaved people poor and unable to gain enough money to purchase any land. Describe how this is a form of oppression.

Citation Information

Lange, Dorothea, "Family of one of the evicted sharecroppers from Arkansas who has been resettled at Hill House, Mississippi," July 1936. Courtesy of Library of Congress