Sunday, May 22, 2011

Sarah Rose Ezelle-Deborah's class-Sharecropping primary docs

Below you see  a memorandum of agreement between two sharecroppers
Memorandum of Agreement

between R.P. Hames Planter, of the County of Marion State of South Carolina and Bob McGaha Laborer, engaged, or to be engaged, in plantation work upon the lands of said Planter known as McKeller Plantation; made this 1st day of January Anno Domini eighteen hundred and seventy five and to continue in force until the first day of December 1875   The party of the first part (Planter) agrees to furnish the said Bob with the same farm he worked last year and what Guano furnished if any to be put at the credit county price, all other advances that I may furnish to be put on the same conditions reserving the rite of controll of said farm in full.

and the party of the second part (Laborer) agrees to use all diligence, and give his time and attention, to the best of his ability, to the cultivation of the soil, to the tending and gathering in of the crop, and all to be done in due time repair all the fencing and secure [?] from fier by cleaning under it, replace fencing for crossfence ends and finish ditch that is started so as to drain ponds intended to drain do all the surfing [?] in power to do this spring on my cottonland keep fier off of said lands, answer to all calls from the said Hames or his agent     And in consideration of the services of said Laborer the said Planter agrees to give him for his sole use and benefit all crops raised upon such portion of the land as he may cultivate in excess of twelve hundred lbs. good white lint cotton and enough of ballance of crop to pay for all advances from said Hames, if it takes all the crop to do so which last the said planter reserves for his own use and benefit. 

    And it is mutually agreed that none of said crop shall be removed from said plantation without the written permission of said Planter; and the said laborer, for any violation herein, shell forfeit all share and interest in said crop. 

    And it is further agreed that the Laborer shall deliver to said planter the planter’s portion of said crop as fast as he may direct--in gathering and lined [?] as he may direct--and put in marketable condition on or before the fifteenth day of November 1875. 

And to the performance of this agreement each party binds himself, his heirs, executors and administrators.  The seed to the amount of three hundred an seven bush belongs to the said Hames in return of seed used this year for  [illegible] said crop advanced by said Hames.
        sined Feb 26, 1875Witness,                                   Robt. P. Hames
J.J. Sineath                              Bob  McGaha + his mark




 Below, this is a picture of a family farming on land that they are using.


 Below, this picture shows a family picking cotton outside their cabins.
                                         
                                             Below, this diagram  shows the cycle of  sharecropping.
                                     
                                   


                                         Below is a cycle of how sharecropping is better, in some ways, than farming on your own land.


Below is a picture of a 13 yearold boy sharecropping on a farm.
                                  

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