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A Brief History of Discrimination against Black Farmers—Including by the USDA

The Equation

The failure of this act likely played a role in paving the way for sharecropping and tenant farming. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, another opportunity for land ownership was presented through sharecropping and tenant farming.

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Our Best Food Justice Stories of 2023

Civil Eats

‘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 88
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Meet the Arkansas Farmers Turning Sweet Potatoes into Spirits

Modern Farmer

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 94
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Healing From the Past to Grow for the Future

Wisconsin Farmers Union

A stark contrast from the labor forced upon his ancestors through slavery and sharecropping. It’s many other people of color that have been put in bad positions when it comes to agriculture, like slavery and sharecropping. He often thinks deeply about their experiences. But it's not just Black folks.

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Urban Farms are a Lifeline for Food-Insecure Residents. Will New Jersey Finally Make Them Permanent?

Modern Farmer

Even after slavery was abolished in New Jersey in 1866, white farmers created their own form of sharecropping called “ cottaging ,” where former enslaved Black people would provide labor in exchange for shelter and crops.

Food 95
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Black Earth: A Family’s Journey from Enslavement to Reclamation

Civil Eats

When the owner of the land where Byron was sharecropping died, he willed Byron at least 10 acres. It really is modern-day sharecropping. He returned to the plantation house to share the news with his mother and sister Flora, then fled on foot to the southeast side of Warren County, to the township of Shocco.

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The Future of Resilient Agricultural Communities in California Is Alive in Allensworth

The Equation

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.