What was the crop-lien system?
Crop-lien system. 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.
Is an agricultural lien superior to other liens?
Although agricultural lien statutes vary widely from state to state, a significant number of state agricultural lien statutes provide that the agricultural lien is superior to or has priority over other liens, regardless of when perfected, except tax liens and liens claimed by the state.
What happened to the cotton lien system?
The merchants held a lien on the cotton crop, and the merchants and landowners were the first ones paid from its sale. What was left over went to the farmer. The system ended in the 1940s as prosperity returned and many poor farmers moved permanently to cities and towns, where jobs were plentiful because of World War II.
What is sharecropping in the south?
Sharecropping, a related system of agriculture that also developed in the post-Civil War South. Thomas D. Clark, „The Furnishing and Supply System in Southern Agriculture since 1865,“ Journal of Southern History, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Feb., 1946), pp. 24–44 in JSTOR
What led to the creation of sharecropping?
The absence of cash or an independent credit system led to the creation of sharecropping. Sharecropping is a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop. This encouraged tenants to work to produce the biggest harvest that they could, and ensured they would remain tied to…
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.
What is the difference between sharecropping and tenant farming?
Working through a vicious cycle of trying to pay off debt and accumulating more and more debt left many farmers working the rest of their lives under their landowner, usually a white farmer. Additionally, sharecroppers had no mules or tools, but tenant farmers had them and commanded a larger share of the crop.