How did the idea of sharecropping originate? Ed Ayers: After [freedmen] begin to get that one crop in the ground, they can tell, they're going to have to work something on a more stable basis.

Although blacks outnumbered whites, the sharecropping system that replaced slavery helped ensure they remained poor and virtually locked out of any opportunity for land ownership or basic human ...

Do you have a story to tell about sharecropping in Williamsburg County, the Pee Dee or Low Country regions or another part of South Carolina? Epps-McGill Farmhouse is seeking to document and ...