What was the crop-lien system in the South?
In the post-Civil War South, the crop lien system allowed farmers to obtain supplies, such as food and seed, on credit from merchants; the debt was to be repaid after the crop was harvested and brought to market.
How did the crop-lien system work?
The crop-lien system was a way for farmers, mostly black, to get credit before the planting season by borrowing against the value of anticipated harvests. Local merchants provided food and supplies all year long on credit; when the cotton crop was harvested farmers turned it over to the merchant to pay back their loan.
What was the crop-lien system in sharecropping?
Under the crop-lien system, a sharecropper planted what the landlord told him to. That was always the cash crop: cotton or tobacco. Instead, they purchased food on credit arranged by the landlord, with the debt to be paid out of the crop.
Why was the crop-lien system bad for farmers?
Abuses in the crop lien system reduced many tenant farmers to a state of economic slavery, as their debts to landlords and merchants carried over from one year to the next. Many landowners joined the ranks of farm tenants when excessive indebtedness led to foreclosure.
What is the crop-lien system successful Why or why not?
Was the crop-lien system successful? Why or why not? No, it was self-destructive because overplanting tobacco and cotton led to the terrible erosion of farmland and was a post-Civil War version of economic slavery for poor white and black people.
How did the crop-lien system contribute to the shift in Southern agriculture toward one crop farming?
The crop-lien system and sharecropping contributed to the greater shift in Southern agriculture towards one-crop farming. 6. Because of their growing indebtedness and sharecropping, many farmers had to turn from subsistence agriculture, which had once been the norm, to cash crops, in order to pay off their loans.
What is the crop-lien system Apush?
Crop-Lien System. The system that allowed farmers to get more credit. They used harvested crops to pay back their loans.
What was the main effect of the sharecropping system?
In addition, while sharecropping gave African Americans autonomy in their daily work and social lives, and freed them from the gang-labor system that had dominated during the slavery era, it often resulted in sharecroppers owing more to the landowner (for the use of tools and other supplies, for example) than they were …
What was the crop-lien system quizlet?
The crop-lien system was a way for farmers to get credit before the planting season by borrowing against the value for anticipated harvests. Local merchants provided food and supplies all year long on credit; when the cotton crop was harvested farmers turned it over to the merchant to pay back their loan.
How did crop lien trap sharecroppers?
Crop liens trapped sharecroppers because many sharecroppers needed more seed and supplies than their landlords could provide so the country sold them supplies on credit and to pay their debts merchants put liens on their crops which meant merchants could take their crops to pay their debts which led to sharecroppers …
What was the crop-lien system that emerged in the South and how did it shape the region after the Civil War?
After the Civil War, the crop-lien system replaced slavery in the cotton belt of the South. This arrangement allowed country merchants to front supplies to poor farmers – at high interest rates – in return for a lien on the farmer’s upcoming crop.
How did the crop-lien system contribute to the shift in southern agriculture toward one crop farming?
What was the crop lien system in the south?
The crop-lien system was a credit system that became widely used by cotton farmers in the United States in the South from the 1860s to the 1930s. Sharecroppers and tenant farmers, who did not own the land they worked, obtained supplies and food on credit from local merchants.
How did the crop-lien system affect farmers in the south?
The crop-lien system drew a majority of small farmers in the post-Civil War South into a cycle of dependency and agricultural poverty. Learn about this system and its socio-economic outcomes in this lesson.
How did sharecropping affect farmers after the Civil War?
While the farmers could possibly pay off their debt, they would be left with barren soil that could grow nothing else. Sharecropping was a similar farming system found in the South after the Civil War. Southern planters would rent out land to former slaves and poor whites, in exchange for labor on the land they were given.
The arrangement between the merchant and the farmer was called the crop-lien system. The merchant allowed the farmer to purchase his goods on credit, in exchange for a lien on the farmer’s forthcoming harvest. To ensure payment, the merchant often stipulated the farmer plant a cash crop, such as cotton.