What does this contract reveal to you about the nature of sharecropping? Was this system a good one for both the sharecropper and the landowner? Explain.

I believe what the contract reveals about the nature of sharecropping is that it was set up to set the “freed” African American for failure and to put them in such debit that they basically became slaves to the landowner once again. The landowner has left a lot of responsibility to the sharecropper obviously I think a good example of this in this contract is that the landowner has agreed to provide the team but the sharecropper has to feed the team Saturday nights, and every other day morning night a day and if he fails to provide the meal he will then owe the landowner 5 cents, which was a lot of money at the time especially for a poor sharecropper. He also has to pay for his half of the manure which the landowner designates as enough of the crops. This system is so beneficial to the landowner but only allows the sharecropper enough to thrive to live. I don’t believe this system was good for both the sharecropper and the landowner. I believe as earlier stated it was one sided to the landowner. The sharecropper had a lot of responsibility while all the landowner did was provided the land and horses for the sharecropper and then reaped all the benefit finically. He got a low cost of labor and once the debit piled up from the landowners harsh expectations basically free labor out of this. This landowner even went as far to make the sharecropper “sow and haul” his oats but of course the sharecropper was not allowed to take part in any of them. Also if the sharecropper does not meet up to the landowner’s taxing and impossible guidelines, he will be charged for certain penalties like 5 cents a meal if not being able to provide for his team, or even the possibility of losing all but 2/5ths of his share of his crops. Yes the landowner does provide a horse for the sharecropper but it’s the sharecropper who is doing all the labor for these horses as well. I just believe that it’s obvious that the is a one sided deal.