Contracts between landowners and sharecroppers were often manipulated during the era of Reconstruction.
The era of Reconstruction took place after the Civil War. This period saw the United States rebuilding after the four years of fighting between the Union and Confederacy. During this time, African-Americans were freed from slavery and now able to work for wages. This is where sharecropping comes in.
Sharecropping is a system in which a landowner rents out some of his land to another person. In return, this person will give the landowner a share of the crops he develops. Landowners took advantage of this system and often accused African American sharecroppers of not paying the landowners with enough resources. This resulted in African American sharecroppers accumulating debt and being stuck on the same rented plot of land for a signficant amount of time.