Students Will
- Distinguish tenant farming and sharecropping
- Analyze the racial implications of tenant farming and sharecropping
Materials
- Computer/tablet with internet access
- Earbuds/headphones
- Paper and writing utensils
Curricular Connections
Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for the Social Studies
Seventh Grade Compacted - US History from Exploration to Reconstruction/ Civics and the World
- 7C.15.2. - Trace the economic changes in the post-Civil War South, including: Lincoln’s Plan, Wade-Davis Bill, Johnson’s Plan, Radical Reconstruction.
- 7C.15.3 - Distinguish the roles of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments in expanding liberty.
- 7C15.4 - Examine the Southern resistance to Reconstruction reforms, including: Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws, Ku Klux Klan, etc.
Eighth Grade: US History Exploration to 1877
- 8.10.2 - Trace the economic changes in the post- Civil War South, including: Lincoln’s Plan, Wade-Davis Bill, Johnson’s Plan, Radical Reconstruction.
- 8.10.3 - Distinguish the roles of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments in expanding liberty.
- 8.10.4 - Examine the Southern resistance to Reconstruction reforms, including: Black Codes, Jim Crow Laws, Ku Klux Klan, etc.
Mississippi Studies
- MS.6.3 - Detail the effects of the Civil War on Mississippi’s economy.
- MS.7.2 - Trace the changes in Mississippi’s economy and technology in the decades following Reconstruction.
- MS.9.4 - Analyze the current trends and historic record of poverty and wealth distribution in Mississippi.
US History: 1877 to Present
- US.1.2 - Compare the changing role of the American farmer, including: establishment of the Granger movement and the Populist Party and agrarian rebellion over currency issues.
- US.6.3 - Analyze President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal as a response to the economic crisis of the Great Depression, including: the effectiveness of New Deal programs in relieving suffering, achieving economic recovery, and promoting organized labor.
Teaching Levels
Grades 7 through 12
Lesson
- The teacher will overview the economic instability for most people in the antebellum and postbellum South. Though some of the world’s wealthiest planters lived in the southern region, most people lived in poverty, White and Black. It is important to note that the poverty of 19th and 20th century African Americans is a direct result of enslavement. Many of those effects linger today. This activity will compare the postbellum experiences of the two.
- Students will individually read "Farmers Without Land: The Plight of White Tenant Farmers and Sharecroppers" article.
- Students will respond to the following discussion questions in groups of two and three. Afterward, each group will summarize their discussion to the class.
- What distinguishes sharecropping from tenant farming?
- How might race impact whether an individual is a tenant farmer or sharecropper?
- Why did the crop-lien system limit economic mobility?
- What were the consequences of the Agricultural Adjustment Act?
- Each group will then view the short videos on PBS: Slavery By Another Name – Sharecropping.
- Employing the information provided by PBS: Slavery By Another Name and "Farmers Without Land: The Plight of White Tenant Farmers and Sharecroppers," students will complete a reflection writing assignment comparing the racial implications for tenant farmers and sharecroppers. Students are encouraged to use the discussion questions above to guide their writing.