A Sharecropping Contract: 1882 (Modified)

To everyone renting land, the following conditions must be agreed to:

For every 30 acres of land, I will provide a mule team, plow, and farming tools. The sharecroppers can have half of the cotton, corn, peas, pumpkins, and potatoes they grow if the following conditions are followed, but--if not--they are to have only two-fifths. The sale of every sharecropper's part of the cotton to be made by me when and where I choose to sell, and after taking all they owe me.

-Grimes Family Papers (#3357), 1882; Held in the Southern Historical Collection.



What is the best definition for sharecropping?

a)A social and economic change before the Civil War
b)An exploitive system endured for several generations
c)Abolishing slavery by the 13th amendment
d)Exploiting minorities in the north