Sharecropping, the Crop-Lien System, Convict Leasing, and the New South
CLEP History of the United States II, Chapter 2 Freedom without a redistribution of land After emancipation, freed families wanted control of their time, household labor, crops, and movement. Former slaveholders wanted a dependable workforce but lacked cash to pay wages. Because most land remained in white hands, sharecropping became a compromise formed under unequal […]
Cattle, Mining, Water, and the Frontier Thesis
CLEP History of the United States II, Chapter 2 The West as an extractive economy A cattle drive, a silver shaft, and an irrigation ditch look like separate stories, yet each connected a western resource to distant capital and consumers. Ranchers converted grass into beef, mining companies converted ore into industrial metals, and farmers converted […]
