Civil Eats

DECEMBER 27, 2023

‘Rhythms of the Land’ Preserves the Untold Stories of Black Farmers Filmmaker and cultural anthropologist Gail Myers discusses the making of her documentary, the oppressive history of sharecropping, and power of seed saving for Black farmers.

Food 77

Food Sharecropping Finance Farming 77

Modern Farmer

JUNE 30, 2023

After the Civil War, the sharecropping period often involved predatory practices, including low wages and unsafe conditions. It’s still run by the family today, now growing 100 acres of mostly sweet potatoes, the warm-climate vegetable that is an important staple in African American foodways. But the process hasn’t always come easily.

Acre 91

Acre Sharecropping Processing Farming 91

The Equation

MARCH 4, 2024

We must not forget that at that time the economic options for Black Americans were scarcely more than sharecropping on former plantations or brutal industrial labor in northern cities; political and social freedoms were systematically denied. Colonel Allensworth envisioned having a Black community where people would be free and independent.

Agriculture 102

Agriculture Agriculture Pesticide Ruralism 102

Daily Yonder

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023

So these struggling agricultural regions could get their excess crops purchased by the federal government, and then turn around and not actually provide that subsidized food back to its sharecropping population as intended. I thought that that was just a really telling example of who those programs were actually for in the beginning.

Food 73

Food Plantation Agriculture Agriculture 73

Civil Eats

OCTOBER 24, 2023

Still, “it’s difficult to unbuild how land was used to punish us for 400 years,” Mack says, referring to the deep scars left by a history of enslavement and sharecropping. “That’s the only way we survived.” She sees greater representation in the field as key to reclaiming that relationship for a new generation.

Cultivation 109

Cultivation Acre Farming Farming 109