Share Cropping Instead of Wage Labor

Sharecropping is an agricultural system used by American land owners. It allowed their land to be used for agriculture on condition that they would get a share of the crop produced. It has a long history and the terms and conditions of agreement vary depending on different farmers. In some cases, this system is governed by the law while theirs are governed by traditions. Wage labor is a relationship between a worker and an employee in which the worker sells their labor for a wage (Archer 2010). Wages are determined by the market situation of the current time. Depending on the agreement of the land Owner and the Share cropper the share cropper is usually responsible for the seeds, fertilizer or Input costs. They preferred this system because of the devastating effects of civil wars, which had ended slavery in America. Wage labor results to exploitation of laborers. Therefore, the African Americans preferred to use this system of Agriculture.

Sharecropping appeared to have several advantages over the Wage labor system. This system was gender sensitive since it enabled women to have access to arable land for farming.  It also enhanced land access for the freed slaves in USA, Brazil and Roman Empire.  Wage labor since wage labor harnessed all the risks onto the land Owner, and sharecropping came to distribute the risks involved in farming (Byres 1983). Sharecropping came along with tenant farming. The share croppers also paid the lands they lived in with the crops produced in this program. When productions of the farm reduced, what resulted were outstanding debts of sharecroppers to land owners. They become poorer because of the deductions made from the payments via the produce of the farms. For this reason, share croppers ended up extremely poor and the remained in the same farms for exceptionally long because of their outstanding debts. The land Owner also dictated the terms and conditions of the contract, and they were not so appealing on the side of the share croppers (Royce 1993). Considering that labor unions did not exist at this time, it was exceedingly detrimental for the sharecroppers.