Tenant farmers usually paid the landowner rent for farmland and a house. They owned the crops they planted and made their own decisions about them. After harvesting the crop, the tenant sold it and received income from it. From that income, he paid the landowner the amount of rent owed.

Sharecroppers didn't own much. Instead, they borrowed almost everything from the landowner, like land, tools, and seeds. In return, they worked the land. They had no say in what crops to grow or how to sell them. After harvesting, the landowner sold the crops and took most of the profits. Many sharecroppers were former slaves, often uneducated, making them vulnerable to exploitation. Landowners controlled the finances and could manipulate debts, keeping sharecroppers trapped. Leaving meant risking jail. This system was profitable for landowners but kept sharecroppers in a cycle of debt and poverty. It lasted until the 1950s, and for African Americans, it felt like trading one form of slavery for another.

By 1880, many southern farms operated under systems of sharecropping or tenant farming. While this system may have assisted some poor people in earning a living, landowners were easily able to take advantage of vulnerable workers and unfortunately, tens of thousands of farmers fell down the economic ladder rather than moving up it. Some farmers would lose everything because of crop failures, low cotton prices, ill health, exhaustion of the soil, or excessive interest rates.