Sharecropper

Black sharecroppers in the South were vulnerable to agricultural hardship, while discrimination restricted access to better-paid employment in northern cities. Many immigrants also worked in low-paid jobs, with limited educational opportunities reducing their prospects.

Many freed people could not afford their own land and became sharecroppers, working white landowners' farms for a share of the harvest. Deductions for food and other necessities could leave them with very little income. Landownership in the West offered an alternative to this dependence.

Some landowners reduced production by dismissing sharecroppers or evicting tenant farmers, who rented their land. These people could lose their livelihood rather than gain from higher prices. The AAA was therefore more successful at helping some farm owners than at relieving rural poverty generally.