Share Cropping/Tenant Farming

After the Union won the war 40 million slaves were released and although all of them had the freedom they had always wanted they didn't know what to do with it, almost all of the slaves that were freed had little to no money and could not afford things such as food, clothing, a home, and not even an education so they started sharecropping (or tenant farming). Share cropping is when a land owner hires a tenant to go out into the field and grow crops, the tenant was provided land, tools, a shelter (a shack), seed, maybe a mule and the local merchants if, kind enough, would provide basic needs such as clothing, and food. When it was time to sell the crop their   the land lord would take the crops and leave from 1/3 to 1/2 of the share of crops for the person to sell. Although though they had just come out of slaver where they did something similar they realized that it would be much better because they were paid and so most of the newly free slaves went into sharecropping so that they could support them selves and their families. In many ways sharecropping was good but it also came with a price, many of the living conditions were better but not good enough to keep people totally safe from weather, disease, starvation, insects, animals, and many other things, even humans!