INTRODUCTION TO ROLL OF THUNDER HEAR MY CRY

Sharecropping Sharecropping video

What is Sharecropping? After the Civil War, Freed Slaves were

promised Forty Acres and a Mule. This meant that they would become land

owners like their former masters. However, the former plantation owners

wanted the same gang labor that they had when they owned the slaves.

This caused them to enter “contracts” with their former slaves. This is the beginning of sharecropping.

What is sharecropping continued. Sharecropping is a deal between a landowner and a

tenant (former slaves, poor blacks and whites during this time). The deal is that the tenant would rent a certain acreage of land for the owner and in turn will get a percentage of what the crop is worth.

Even though this was a deal between owners and the sharecroppers, the deals were unfair to the sharecroppers and they usually did not get paid for the crops they brought in.

Though the slaves were freed, sharecropping was a disguised form of slavery with promises of pay and rights for the black sharecroppers.

Question One If sharecroppers owned their own land,

would their conditions been different? How?

Who Sharecropped? Not only did former slaves sharecrop,

poor whites did also. More than two thirds (2/3) of

sharecroppers were white while one third (1/3) were black.

Question Two Do you think the white sharecroppers

were treated as badly as the black sharecroppers?

Jim Crow Laws Jim Crow laws were a set of laws to regulate the lives of

African American, Mexican, Chinese, and Native American citizens in the late 1800’s to the early 1960’s.

“It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.”—Birmingham, Alabama, 1930

All railroads carrying passengers in the state (other than street railroads) shall provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races, by providing two or more passenger cars for each passenger train, or by dividing the cars by a partition, so as to secure separate accommodations.”—Tennessee, 1891

“Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.”—Missouri, 1929

Question Three Do you think that the sharecroppers

should have followed the Jim Crow laws? Should they have fought against them?

Give a one word Response for each picture