Monday, March 22, 2010

Black Sharecropper

Today's picture shows a black sharecropper. The picture was taken in Arkansas in 1935. The man is leaning on his shovel in front of a barn.

By the time I came along in the 1960's, sharecropping was pretty much gone. Tractors and other modern farm implements did away with the intense labor needs on farms, and so I think this help lead to the demise of sharecropping.
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8 comments:

  1. Powerful photo. Does anyone know who the photographer was?

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  2. My husband grew up on a small farm in North Carolina, leaving there about 1940. There was one sharecropping family on the farm and the man was "Uncle Tom," literally, Tom was his name.

    And Uncle Tom had "spanking privileges" over my husband and his little brother. If he caught them in mischief, he tanned their little bottoms.

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  3. That looks like an ax, to me. Could he have been chopping wood?

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  4. It is a two bladed axe and it looks like he is hewing out a big log. Maybe building an shed.
    R

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  6. My daddy and his daddy were tobacco sharecroppers until the 1970's. I bet this man is standing in front of his house not the barn. He is holding an ax and hewing logs for some reason. I think I grew up on tobacco road.

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  7. Some people look good no matter what situation they are in. ;-) He's got that cocked hip and direct gaze. He's a handsome fellow.

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  8. Have you read "Same Kind of Different as Me?" Great book, true story about a homeless man that grew up in a sharecropper famiily. Written by Ron Hall who basically adopted "Denver" into his family. Awesome book, read it in one day. Enjoy your blog. Karen Harris

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