reconstruction lesson 5 sharecropping

U.S. History Bell Ringer

To what extent do you think your family’s economic level affects who you are and your future?

Today’s Theme and Central Question

How do we live?What replaced slavery as the labor system for working farms?

What were the long term consequences of this new system?

Food for family for the year:• Flour $25• Bacon & Meat $65• Milk $30• Beans $25• Lard $30• Coffee $15• Sugar $10Total $200

Clothing and shoes for family - $50

Wheel of LifeBecause life is full of surprises!1- Children sick: Doctor and medicine -$252- Fence repairs: -$153- New roof for home: -$504- New child: -$25 for doctor5- Broken tools: -$156- Extra time for side job: +$25

The average harvest is 100 bales of cotton, but how much you actually harvest depends on the weather. Roll to see what this year’s harvest will be.

1- Perfect weather!: +20% on harvest2- Hail storm: -25% on harvest3- Average year: 0% on harvest4- Drought: -20% on harvest5- Insects infestation: -10% on harvest6- Flooding: -15% on harvest

The average market price per bale of cotton is $10, but how much you actually get paid depends on the current market. Roll to see what this year’s market price is.

1- Great crop year:-20% on price2- Good crop year: -10% on price3 and 4- Average year: 0% on price5- Poor crop year: +10% on price6- Very bad year: +20% on price

Landlord expenses:• Share of seed $50• Feeding mule team $75• Share of fertilizer $50• Gin fee for cotton $75Total owed - $250

In Mississippi by 1900 85% of all African American farmers were sharecroppers

By 1935 nearly half of white farmers and 77% of black farmers in the whole country were tenant farmers.

"We'd get $12 per bale and we had to pick hard in order to have money to buy food during that season," said Mississippi State Senator David Jordan, whose parents were sharecroppers. "If we had a rainy week where we couldn't pick at all, then we would have no money. We would have to go get food and substances on credit."

"Some came out in the hole five or six times and they never did get out of the hole," Jordan said. "So what happened, they caught the midnight train or bus and headed to Chicago and they never found 'em, 'cause that was the only way to get out of that miserable stuation.”

Closing Question

Please respond in your journal to the following closing question:

What do you think the long term consequences of the sharecropping labor system were?

Can you think of any possible effects that are still with us today over a hundred years later?

12 States with highest poverty in 2009

1. Mississippi2. Arkansas3. Kentucky4. New Mexico5. West Virginia6. Louisiana7. District of Columbia8. Alabama9. Tennessee10. Texas11. South Carolina12. Georgia

BibliographySlide 2- http://reginaldkcarter.com/images/Graph%205.pdf Slide 4- http://www.uwec.edu/geography/Ivogeler/w188/planta3.htmSlide 14- http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/saipe/national.cgi?year=2009&ascii=