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By the early 1930s, there were 5.5 million white tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and mixed cropping/laborers in the United States; and 3 million Blacks. [24] [25] In Tennessee, sharecroppers operated approximately one-third of all farm units in the state in the 1930s, with white people making up two thirds or more of the sharecroppers. [13]
The landlords accepted these terms. By 1932, the Sharecroppers Union began to face adversities regarding actual violence, the distribution of mail among counties for any attempts of organization and also the threatening presence and an outcome of physical violence from possible organized terrorist groups or from the local government, which most of the time were the same entity.
The land was initially in parcels of 80-acre (0.32 km 2) (half-quarter section) until June 1868, and thereafter parcels of 160-acre (0.65 km 2) (quarter section, or one quarter of a square mile), and homesteaders were required to occupy and improve the land for five years before acquiring full ownership.
At harvest time the sharecropper kept a share of the crop production (from one-third to one-half), with the landowner taking the rest. The cropper used his share to pay off his debt to the merchant. The system started with blacks when large plantations were subdivided. By the 1880s, white farmers also became sharecroppers.
Some 122 blacks were indicted in Arkansas, with 73 charged with murder; no whites were prosecuted. Many suspects were beaten and tortured through electric shock to elicit forced testimony. The trials by all-white juries were dominated by armed whites milling around outside the courthouse, with some armed men inside the courtroom.
They worked for white landowners at a disadvantage, as they were dependent on the owners' dispersing funds and settling accounts after they sold the cotton crops. The landowners seldom provided itemized accounts, often required sharecroppers to buy seeds and supplies from plantation stores, and sold the cotton according to their own schedules.
In some cases, the crop did not cover the debt, and the farmer either secretly moved out or started the next year in the red. Additionally, sharecroppers had no mules or tools, but tenant farmers had them and commanded a larger share of the crop. The owner took the rest. At harvest time, the merchant collected his debts from the sale of the ...
Black sharecroppers were often exploited in their efforts to collect payment for their cotton crops." [9] Whites tried to disrupt such organizing and threatened farmers. [14] The PFHUA retained a white law firm based in Little Rock to represent the