This piece is not necessarily intended to be a history lesson…..rather I would like to look at it as a prediction of future events, based on previous events. (what a concept...huh?) However if you read it and learn something……then I guess that’s ok too.
After the Civil War, many farmers in the south faced a conundrum of sorts. It seems that they had land…..but they didn’t have money to pay for labor. On the other hand, the former slaves and poor whites had labor…..but didn’t have land. The solution for many, was an agreement between the parties that was referred to as sharecropping.
The way that sharecropping worked was that the land owner would allot a piece of land to the sharecropper…..and in exchange when the crop came in, the sharecropper would have to give the land owner a percentage of the profit from the sale of the crop. This might sound good to some people….but the problem was that the sharecropper often had to purchase their seed for planting from the land owner at an inflated price. In addition, during the time between planting time and harvest time….the sharecroppers often had to purchase their farm tools…..their food….their clothing…..their lodging….and other necessities from a store owned by the land owner. These items were mostly purchased on credit....and had to be deducted from the sale of the crop before there were any profits to be split. (Please stay with me…..I promise I’m going somewhere)
While this might sound like a wonderful arrangement…..often when the crop came in and the amount owed to the land owner’s “company store” was paid off…..there was no profit to be split. In fact…often the amount owed to the “company store” was more than what the crop had sold for. This meant that in order for the sharecropper to be able to try again next year….they had to borrow even more from the “company store”. Year after year this happened…..until in the end…..someone who was freed from slavery by a horrific, bloody Civil War…..once again became nothing more than a slave to the land owner and his "company store". The only difference this time was that the land owner wasn’t buying his slaves at a slave auction…..rather this time it was due to the sharecropper owing everything (and more) to the land owner. The end result was someone who was once a “free man”......was again a slave because of a complete dependence on the land owner under the title of sharecropper. While the title was different…..a slave is a slave.
Fortunately there were some sharecroppers who rose up and through hard work and perseverance were able to make a profit. While this enabled some of them to free themselves from the situation……it allowed others to at least offer a different life for the next generation.
The book “Sharecropper’s Son” (written by Susan D. Brandenburg) …….chronicles the life of Doc Garland Granger who at the age of 6 was working in the tobacco fields of North Carolina. Mr Granger, now 94 years old, has become an icon of the steel industry, a successful hotelier, restaurateur and real estate developer. He is also a yachtsman, philanthropist and philosopher.
Then there is Ruth Simmons Stubblefield….the daughter of a sharecropper who worked from sunup to sundown in the cotton fields of Grapeland, Texas. Since she was too young to pick cotton…..while her 11 brothers and sister worked in the fields alongside their father……Ruth read books and studied. Later in life….because of the sacrifice of her family and her own determination to succeed…..she graduated from Harvard with a Ph.D…..and then later went on to become the President of Brown University.
These are only two stories of how a person went from a total dependence on someone else……to being successful and self-sufficient. While there are many others……I assure you that there are far more who worked in the sharecropping system until they died……even to the point of creating a multi-generational system of failure for their children and grandchildren as well. This was because the concept of sharecropping was one that created a total dependence on the land owner. A dependence that was so great that it often led a person who was once free…..back into slavery.
So where am I headed with this?
Any person who thinks that they can take from the federal government and eventually not owe them…..is either stupid or sadly mistaken. The federal government is nothing more than a modern-day adaptation of the land owner and his “company store”. Taking from them might sound good……and it might even seem to be a necessity…..but be assured that eventually you will pay. It might not be in dollars…..but you will pay. In the same way that we saw that there were multi-generational sharecroppers……today we are seeing a culture of multi-generational recipients of government entitlement programs. When this happens at that level…..it often becomes acceptable to those involved. Maybe not to everyone….because sometimes there are those who rise above it......although I will assure you that they are a small fraction that group. According to the United Press International (UPI)….one in every six Americans is receiving some type of help from the government. (And we wonder why this country is broke) This can’t continue. If we get to the place where the majority of people in this country are receiving government assistance……a couple things will happen. Those in power, will remain in power…..and although you may call yourself free……the government will own you.
My fear is that that stories from the past……”From The Son Of A Sharecropper….To A Success”……will someday be written for my son as…..”From The Son Of A Success…..To A Sharecropper”. Then Again….That’s Just Me.
