The contract was signed in Marshall County, Mississippi, in 1867, between the landowner Isham G. Bailey and the recently freemen Charles Roberts and Cooper Hughes, including their respective families.
The contract emerged as a need for the new freemen to be independent from the landowner. It stablished that the land would be split in sections and each family would have a section where to raise a crop, and the landowner would have the 50% of the income of the land. In this way, the families would have their own income and the landowner would have an income as well for their work and, for 50$ additional per year, the landowner could receive housework as well.
This gave the freemen the opportunity to manage their time raising and the time they spent in their homes, and also gave them financial stability.