Freedmen's Bureau and Sharecropping/Tenant Farming

     The United States Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (also known as the Freedmen's Bureau) in 1865. This bureau was formed to help African Americans rebuild their lives after they were freed from slavery. The Freedman's Bureau was formed by Radical Republicans (political faction that advocated equal rights for blacks). It turns out this organization was one of of a kind: it was the only agency to have been created in order to benefit social welfare. Major General Oliver O. Howard (a post Civil War hero) was extremely involved in the Bureau and its doings. The people that were a part of the Freedmen's Bureau helped post enslaved men and women receive educations, negotiate contracts, and live in the real-working world. Many times the Bureau was disregarded or looked down upon, however the missionaries working the organization were very successful in education department. Countless schools, colleges, and training schools were established for blacks where they could learn without prejudice. Howard University and Hampton Institute were two of the many schools created. Furthermore, African American's created many churches and congregations with the Freedmen's resources. The Freedmen's Bureau was very successful in its helping the African Americans start new lives. The program was around until 1872 when staff cuts were made, and operations ceased to exist.

   
     Sharecropping was an agricultural system, that was established after the Civil War ended, in Georgia and other Southern states. Sharecropping was where workers with no land, ran other owners plantations for a small profit. At the end of a year (or season) the sharecropper had to pay the owner a percentage of the crop. These laborers suffered often from bankruptcy and plaguing debt, they hardly ever made profits. Many freed slaves went into the business of sharecropping. By the 1870s sharecropping was a large part of the Southern economy and a new version of slavery. By 1880 these laborers worked on 32 percent of the farms. Throughout the next fifty years this system would continue to flourish. Tenant farming was also common after the Civil War ended. Tenant farming was considered a "step up" from sharecropping. Most tenant farmers owned their own tools or animals, although they were still poor. Unlike sharecroppers, tenant farmers paid the owners either cash or some of the crop.

Sources:

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3257

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_freed.html

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3590

http://www.history.com/topics/sharecropping

ttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/587122/tenant-farming

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Freedman's_bureau.jpg/250px-Freedman's_bureau.jpg

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/media_content/m-4585.jpg

http://stfm.astate.edu/images/36-mule.jpg