Sharecroppers

Sharecropping was for the landless people.
It was kin to slavery but with a different name.
Sharecropping was based on the business deal that the white landowner would "rent" out plots of land and Black people would farm the land giving a large portion of the money the crops brought in to the white landowner.

(Excerpt from newspaper article connected to Mr. Charlie Holcombes oral history-article is cited at bottom of page)
"When Charlie was a little boy, in the elections of 1894 and 1896, an interracial “Fusion” coalition won every statewide office in North Carolina, swept the legislature, won the governorship and both U.S. Senate seats. They championed local self-government, rather than the white conservatives’ program of having the state government select local officials. The Fusionists pushed free public education, the principle of “one man, one vote,” regardless of race, and modest regulation of the monopoly capitalism preferred by railroads, banks and corporations.

Colored sharecropper and his children about to leave home through the pine woods after their morning work at the tobacco farm stringing and putting up tobacco.
Shoofly, Granville County, North Carolina, 1939
Photograph by Dorothea Lange

"...young Negro couple and baby. ...The man was shy of having his photograph made but finally held the baby in front of the house for one picture.

Negro sharecropper house. Person County, North Carolina, 1939
Photograph by Dorothea Lange

Sharecropper and son waiting their turn at the cotton gin. Smithfield, North Carolina, -1936
photographer: Arthur Rothstein, 1915-1985,

Image of an elderly African American man, sitting with an object in his hands. He is bald and has a white beard. He is looking at his the object in his hands.

The Compton family taking sticks of tobacco out of the barn to the strip house. They are tenants, and the Negro owner lives in Mebane. This is part of a prosperous Negro settlement between Carr and Cedar Grove, Orange County, North Carolina.

An African American woman and wife of a Pitt County tenant farmer standing on her porch with six children.

These three McLeod brothers, Edward, Dalton and David, are entertaining themselves on the porch of their new home

Photo shows possible sharecroppers- African American men and women stoop planting tobacco or cotton in furrows, with mule in foreground.

Shown are, left to right, Cephus Keith, John Keith, Susie Durham, Esther Keith, Hudie Keith, Viola Allen Keith, Wade Keith, and Rufe Keith.

African American woman worker in cotton field. (Likely a sharecropper.) Greenfield Farm, Chowan County, NC, c.1905.

Aloys Butler and wife. (Likely sharecroppers) Rural Edenton, North Carolina,
May 10, 1927

Source: PhC_51_F11_2- From the Surry Parker Photograph Collection, PhC.51, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC.

Negro child working in tobacco field. She walks along dropping the plants into places already “chopped” for them. Near Farrington, Orange County, North Carolina - May 1940.

Photographer: Jack Delano

Negro tenant farmer’s wife. Near Stem, Granville Co., North Carolina. 1940 May.

Photographer: Jack Delano.

Wife and children of Mr. Hubbard, Negro tenant farmer, inside their home.
They plant tobacco near Farrington, Chatham County, North Carolina,
May 1940.

Photographer: Jack Delano

1939 Nov.?, Corn shucking on Uncle Henry Garrett’s place, Negro tenant of Mr. Fred Wilkins. White women don’t go to Negro shucking to help with the cooking but whites are fed by Negro women just the same as at other shucking week previous at Mr. Fred Wilkins’ home. Tally Ho, near Stem, Granville County, North Carolina.

Photograph shows ten African American children of various ages in a field picking berries.

Photographic print showing a group of African American men, women, and children standing in a cotton field, some holding baskets containing cotton.

Person County, NC., 1939 July.

Title: [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Pottery butter churn on porch of tenant family.
The churn is covered with a cloth to keep the flies out. Note chair seat of split white oak.
Chair making is a local craft long developed in this region. Randolph County, North Carolina]

Title: Mr. Zollie Lyon, Negro sharecropper, home from the field for dinner at noontime, with his wife and part of his family. Note dog run.

Home of Negro tobacco tenant with addition of improvised garage.
Wake County, North Carolina. July 1938.

Photograph of two Chatham County, NC. farm workers in 1939 who worked on Mr. Gordon Bennett’s farm on what is now Polks Landing Rd running west from US 15-501.

Grandchildren of tobacco sharecropper Mr. Zollie Lyons down at barns.
Wake County, NC. July 1939.

Photographer: Dorothea Lange.
Sourced from: LOC collection.

Grandchildren of tobacco sharecropper Mr. Zollie Lyons down at barns. Wake County, NC. July 1939.

Note construction of tobacco sleds which have just been repaired by Zollie Lyons.
Behind them a screened platform in which a member of the family sleeps who tends the fire during the night.

Thirteen year old daughter of Negro sharecropper planting sweet potatoes.

PIttsboro, North Carolina, July 1939. House of Negro tenant family. This is a larger house than usual box type.

Has several rooms, unscreened, but well kept. Part of the family is sitting on the porch resting--Saturday afternoon. The oldest son on the mule is on his way to visit a neighbor.

ca 1910-1920, Henderson, North Carolina- Black family picking cotton - sharecroppers.

Photographer: not identified
Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Tobacco Picker, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, 1943.

Tenant farmer plowing corn in Person County, North Carolina, July 1939. He mainly raises tobacco. Photo by Dorothea Lange- Library of Congress

Young Negro farm laborer, Stem, North Carolina May 1940

Photograph: [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Corn shucking on Uncle Henry Garrett's place, Negro tenant of Mr. Fred Wilkins. White women don't go to Negro shucking to help with the cooking but white men are fed by Negro women just the same as at other shucking week previous at Mr. Fred Wilkins' home. Tally Ho, Near Stem, Granville County, North Carolina
November 1939?

Daughter of Negro tenant farmer. Granville County, North Carolina July 1939

Home of Negro tenant farmer. Halifax, North Carolina April 1938

Migrant Workers, Camden County, North Carolina. June 1972

Photo shows the bare feet of African American children. They are standing on the porch of a newly built house shown in LC-USF33-00107-M2.

Photo shows an African American man in a plowed field, with plow and horse.

This photograph, now housed at the State Archives of North Carolina, honestly and succinctly depict an enclave of industrious, self-reliant people living and working in an equally beautiful and frequently inhospitable environment.

Migratory agricultural worker from Florida waiting to leave Belcross, North Carolina to another job at Onley, Virginia. It is Sunday and she is wearing her best clothes.
July 1940.

[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Granville Clarke, Florida migratory agricultural worker studying road map before leaving Elizabeth City with his crew. They are going to Bridgeville, Delaware to work in a cannery. North Carolina]. July 1940

Untitled photo, possibly related to: Group of Florida migrants waiting for the foreman before going to work in the potato field. They are paid a dollar a day.
Belcross, North Carolina, July 1940.

Farm workers getting truck ready to leave Belcross, N.C. for Onley, Va., July 1940.

1938 - Negro family on front porch of old home on badly eroded land near Wadesboro, North Carolina.

1920 -four Black women picking cotton near New Bern, N. C.

July 1940, Stove in foreground and cooking utensils in the background are used to cook for thirty-five migratory agricultural workers who stay in this camp. Near Old Trap, North Carolina.

Tying Tobacco Leaves, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, 1943.

Negro farmhouse near Sweponville, Alamance County, North Carolina, May 1940.

Negro farmers at community warehouse. Roanoke Farms, North Carolina

Father of sharecropper family. He is sixty-nine years old, has six acres of tobacco, has a large family.

The mother said they were not running it because they did not have the money to buy tags.

Williamson was the first [Black farmer] in the U.S. to receive a loan under the tenant purchase program.

Mother of sharecropper family and friend coming up the road in the rain, bringing home sacks of vegetables from the neighbor place.

Farm boy with white horse, Guilford County, North Carolina, April 1939.

Mrs. Williamson, wife of Nat Williamson who was the first Negro farmer in the United States to receive a loan under the FSA Tenant Purchase Program.

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Tobacco Bag Stringing

Mrs. Rosa Bell and several family members are pictured standing in front of their house.

NEAL, MRS. CORNELIA, (colored), age 66, husband 70; two children and four grandchildren living with her.

Left photo: Empty tobacco bag with string. North Carolina Collection Gallery.

Right photo: Country Gentleman Tobacco, Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, Durham, N.C. North Carolina Collection
Gallery.

Noontime chores feeding chickens on Negro tenant farm. Granville County, North Carolina, July 1939.

Negro tenant farmer topping tobacco. Person County, North Carolina

Negro tenant farmer's house. Near Farrington, Chatham County, North Carolina
May 1940
Contributor: Delano, Jack

Top photograph: Mrs. Hattie Maynard, Reidsville, Rockingham County, N.C., 1939.

Mrs. Hattie Maynard is pictured standing with her husband and grandson in front of her house.

Bottom photograph: Mrs. Hattie Maynard is pictured seated inside her home with her grandson and two other people. The two women are stringing tobacco bags.