"Cotton is King"
"Cotton is King" plantation scene, Georgia, United States,
c. 1870.
Stereograph by Underwood and Underwood.
In the post-Emancipation rural South, most African Americans had no money and were unable to secure loans. They were forced to become share tenants or sharecroppers who provided their own labor and depended on credit for everything from animals to food to shelter. By harvest time these sharecroppers often owed more than they had earned. Thus a system of dependency on Southern plantation owners was perpetuated.