| As southern cotton growers reduced production in return for federal payments, sharecroppers and tenant farmers were driven from the land. |
| And life was almost as bleak for white tenant farmers and sharecroppers as it was for slaves, who often worked alongside them in the fields. |
| The book opens in 1874 in Delta, Louisiana, on the plantation where Walker's parents were sharecroppers. |
| But there's a limited amount of stuff to harvest, and bringing in more sharecroppers and putting in longer hours isn't really going to pay off. |
| Born between the early 1890s and the 1930s, all grew up poor, most came from farming families, and many were sharecroppers. |
| There are also 4.8 million landless families who survive as tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and casual laborers. |
