Sharecropping

Scope and Contents Two account ledger books belonging to the Dillard family of Lovingston, Virginia, containing business and farming records, laborers and slaves’ specific activities, labor contracts, worker wages, and personal opinions from the Dillards on their workers and slaves between 1859-1888.The entries pertaining to labor contracts describe the terms of involuntary servitude placed upon African American workers in exchange for food, meals, and housing. Included in these entries are...

Scope and Contents This signed letter by former Congressman and Confederate diplomat Reuben Chapman, is addressed to Alabama lawyer and former Confederate officer Septimus Douglass Cabaniss. Written on February 5, 1869, from Sumter County, Alabama, the letter discusses Chapman's interactions with freedmen sharecroppers, his concerns about cotton prices, and various business dealings. Chapman describes purchasing the freedmen's share of the cotton crop amid concerns over price fluctuations and their growing...

Scope and Contents

A Communist Party report on the South, which describes its natural resources, the poverty and exploitation of its farmers, sharecroppers and tenants, and the root if its "backwardness": the "national oppression of the Negro people in the Black Belt." The report concludes with the Communist Party's commitment to fighting white chauvinism and in uniting mass organizations in the struggle against the oppression of African Americans.