Some Sources for Teaching about Sharecropping

It can be hard to find accessible information for students to read about sharecropping.  Here an oral history, photograph, and sharecropping contract are combined to build an understanding of the system. 

In Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter, Osceola talks about "Daddy's Work."  It's a short piece that provides students with a picture of the types of work sharecropper's did, for whom, and how they were paid.  

Read "Daddy's Work" to the class and then in small groups have students re-read the passage and fill out charts with columns for "Daddy's Work," "For whom did he work?,"  and "How was he paid?"

Then use a sharecropping photo such as this Lewis Hine photo and visual thinking strategies to gather more information about sharecropping.  

Have students write three-word phrases that describe sharecropping.

Generate questions they might have about sharecropping.

Read out loud a sharecropping contract and have students follow along, underlining details that reveal more about sharecropping. Do a verbal document analysis on it--who wrote it, date, what it says.

Then fill out a worksheet that has students detail what the landowner gets and gives and what the sharecropper gets and gives.

Generate new three-word phrases that describe sharecropping.

Possible writing prompts might include:

•  Read the 13^th Amendment and the sharecropping contract.  Then discuss what freedom means.

•  Read the contract and look at the photo.  Imagine yourself as the child pictured.

•  Choose the name of someone in the contract.  What does freedom mean to you?

Published Oral Histories about Sharecropping

Alan Govenar, ed., Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper's Daughter (2000)

Oral history of Osceola Mays, born in East Texas in 1909, the daughter of a sharecropper and the grand-daughter of slaves.

Eloise Greenfield and Lessie Jones Little, Childtimes (1979)

Three generations of black women remember their "childtimes."

Leon Walter Tillage, Leon's Story (2000)

Tillage, a black custodian in a Baltimore private school, reminisces about his childhood as a sharecropper's son in the South, and his youth as a civil-rights protester.

Sharecropping Links

From Slave to Sharecropper

PBS Site Bibliography

From Slavery to Sharecropping 

Lesson with background information and transcribed contract

Gilder Lehrman: Sharecropper Contract

Lots of background information, lessons, and primary sources

Here's Osceola providing an oration or plea for justice.

Dos and Don'ts of Teaching Black History

Flow of History teachers had the opportunity to visit the Southern Poverty Law Center this past summer as part of our summer institute on the Civil Rights Movement. We spent time at the moving memorial designed by Maya Lin.

As part of their Teaching Tolerance program, the Southern Povery Law Center has created a "Dos and Don'ts of Teaching Black History while it is Black History Month." First on their list is to incorporate black history year-round. Here's the link.

Martin Luther King at Dartmouth

Did you know that Martin Luther King spoke at Dartmouth?

On May 23, 1962 Martin Luther King came to Hanover to speak about the state of the Civil Rights Movement. His visit coincided with the arrival in Montgomery, Alabama, of the Freedom Riders who were protesting the segregationist polices of southern bus terminals. Mass rioting, the beating of activists, and angry mobs prompted Dr. King to return to Alabama immediately.

Towards Freedom is a multimedia presentation about Dr. King's speech at Dartmouth where you can watch the speech, read the transcription, and learn more about his visit.

A book for Martin Luther King Day

A decade before Jackie Robinson became the first black player in major league baseball, Satchel Paige helped integrate the sport by touring the country and playing exhibition games with white players. Told from the point of view of a sharecropper, this graphic novel follows Paige from game to game as he travels throughout the segregated South. Panel discussions at the back of the book provide historical context and references to relevant primary sources.

The author, James Sturm, is the Co-Founder and Director of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT.