Forrest We Trust

From my Graphic Novel Book; “Get Forrest”

At the end of the American Civil War that lasted from 1861 to 1865, southern farmers had the problems of getting laborers to work on their farm because slaves were no more. Leveraging on the former slaves’ willingness to possess their farmland, southern farmers who have plantations employed the methods of cropping together and allowing renters to farm on their plantations. The two techniques call for sharing their farmland into lesser tracts of land, without revoking their ownership. With lesser tracts of plantations, the southern plantation farmer-owners devised joint profit packages with the freelance farmers to run the plantations.

With the sharecropping deal, farmers who own land supplied their collaborative farmers with shelter and a measured parcel of land, and also all the inputs like grains, fertilizer, and farm implement essential to grow crops. Southern farmers who own the plantations specified the exact plants to be grown and monitored the workers who farmed in the plantations. In return, the sharecroppers assisted on the plantations right from the planting of the seed to the harvesting of mature fruits. After harvesting, all of the produce was handed over to the farm owner, who traded for money. After taking away the money spent on farm inputs which he had funded from his purse, the farmer divides the rest of the gains and gives to sharecroppers. The latter, most times get a range of 1/3 and one-half of the net gains made.