jul 1, 1890 - Sharecropping in the South

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-Most of the advances during the machine age affected primarily the northern cities
-agriculture still maintained the main form of labor
-Textile mills sprang up around the South, reducing cotton farmers' reliance on the North
-Postwar economics forced many farmers to sell their land , which wealthy landowners bought these lands and consolidated it into larger farms
-landless farmers were forced into sharecropping
-the system in which they rented land was called the crop lien system, designed to keep the poor in constant debt
-they borrowed money for seeds and tools, promising a porting of their crop as collateral
-b/c the interest rates were very high on their loans, the farmers never overcome their debt
-landlords basically kept these farmers in a state of virtual slavery

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