sharecropping, tenant farming

     A sharecropper or tenant farmer made a deal with a landowner to farm some or all of his or her land, in exchange for a "share" of the crops raised on it.  It was something like renting land. Someone who literally had nothing but the clothes on his back could become a sharecropper, and many of them were poor. The person who owned the land got crops to sell, even though he didn't farm the land himself. According to the deal made with the owner, the sharecropper or tenant farmer got the rest.