Question

What was one reason sharecropping began in the South? a. It was a way to take advantage of the South’s strong infrastructure. b. The federal government required Southerners to use this system. c. Landowners needed laborers, and freed slaves needed work. d. Farmers were the only Southerners who still had money after the Civil War.

Answer 1

Answer: C

Explanation: With slavery being abolished after the Civil War, many Southerners lost their form of work in slaves. Slaves themselves also needed a form of work. Sharecropping substituted that (when a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on the land), though it still adhered to the attributes of slavery like unequal shares.