Sharecropping Analysis in The Warmth of Other Suns

Sharecropping was a labor system implemented in the South after the end of slavery, in which landowners would rent their land to farmers in exchange for a portion of what they produced (usually half). However, by manipulating the prices for crops and materials, landowners kept Black sharecroppers in perpetual debt and effectively enslaved, even as late as the 1960s.

Sharecropping Quotes in The Warmth of Other Suns

The The Warmth of Other Suns quotes below are all either spoken by Sharecropping or refer to Sharecropping. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

George could have left after settlement without saying a word. It was a risk to say too much. The planter could rescind the settlement, say he misfigured, turn a credit into a debit, take back the money, evict the family or whip the sharecropper on the spot, or worse. Some sharecroppers, knowing they might not get paid anyway, fled from the field, right in midhoe, on the first thing going north.

The planters could not conceive of why their sharecroppers would want to leave. The dance of the compliant sharecropper conceding to the big planter year in and year out made it seem as if the ritual actually made sense, that the sharecropper, having been given no choice, actually saw the tilted scales as fair. The sharecropper’s forced silence was part of the collusion that fed the mythology.

Related Characters: Isabel Wilkerson (speaker), George Gladney, Edd Pearson

Page Number and Citation: 167-168

Explanation and Analysis:

Sharecropping Term Timeline in The Warmth of Other Suns

The timeline below shows where the term Sharecropping appears in The Warmth of Other Suns. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...agrees to support it. Ida Mae follows George to Edd Pearson’s plantation, where he starts sharecropping. (full context)

History, Memory, and Identity Theme Icon

Right after the Civil War, most formerly enslaved Black families stay on plantations to sharecrop. But the government protects their political rights for the first time, so some are also... (full context)

...city to city, as they move around for work. His grandfather John is a grumpy sharecropper who, as a young man, killed his abusive plantation owner in the Carolinas before moving... (full context)

Every year, Mr. Reshard, the owner of the plantation where John Starling sharecrops in Florida, declares that their accounts “broke even” and that neither man owes the other... (full context)

...a ramshackle wooden cabin and work Pearson’s cotton from sunrise to after dark. Like most sharecroppers, George and Ida Mae keep half of what they produce, minus the cost of materials.... (full context)

...dresses because she can’t afford clothes made of the same cotton she picks. George’s family sharecrops on the Pearson plantation, too, and his niece teaches Ida Mae to cook, clean, and... (full context)

...everything right. When their turkey has chicks, instead of watching them carefully (like the other sharecroppers), Ida Mae lets them run free. (full context)

...more eager to leave. Southern businessmen and politicians even visited the North and begged former sharecroppers to move back. Virtually none did. Suddenly, labor was scarce in the South, too, and... (full context)

...1945, a planter named Willie Jim takes over his cotton plantation and runs it with sharecropper labor until the mid-1960s. Otherwise, the remaining Black residents mostly work in factories. Like many... (full context)

Sharecropping Term Analysis

Sharecropping Quotes in The Warmth of Other Suns

Sharecropping Term Timeline in The Warmth of Other Suns