Sharecropping

With the slaves emancipated, they now had freedom but had no capital and little to offer besides labor force. With little to no money, thousands of impoverished former slaves slipped into the status of sharecropping farmers, as did many landless whites. Former slaves now became "slaves" not to a master but to the soil and to their creditors. The dethroned aristocracy resented , however , even the smallest of freedom the blacks had. Sharecropping was the "wrong policy", said one planter. "It makes the laborer to independent; he becomes a partner, and has a right to be consulted." The emancipation of the slaves was seen more a re-enslavevemnt rather than true freedom.