¹ Shannon, Fred A., The Farmer's Last Frontier: Agriculture, 1860–1897 (New York, 1968), pp. 87–88;Google ScholarMeier, August, and Rudwick, Elliott, From Plantation to Ghetto, rev. ed. (New York, 1970), p. 150;Google ScholarLacy, Dan, The White Use of Blacks in America, (New York, 1972), pp. 90, 101.Google Scholar

² See the citations of Ransom and Sutch, Reid, Wright, Higgs, and Alston below. See also Shlomowitz, Ralph, “The Origins of Southern Sharecropping,” Agricultural History, 53 (07 1979), 557–75,Google Scholar and Parker, William N., “The South in the National Economy, 1865–1970,” Southern Economic Journal, 46 (04 1980), 1024–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Many others—historians, economists, and other social scientists too numerous to mention—have studied these issues. For a useful introduction to the literature, see the footnotes prepared by Weiman, David F. in Parker's paper, pp. 1027–30.Google Scholar

³ Ransom, Roger L., and Sutch, Richard, One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 89–90, 337.Google Scholar

⁴ U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture, Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Year 1867 Washington, D. C., 1868), p. 417.Google Scholar

⁵ Southerner, [pseud.], “Agricultural Labor at the South,” Galaxy, 12 (09. 1871), 330;Google ScholarKing, Edward, The Great South: A Record of Journies (Hartford, 1875), p. 273.Google Scholar Ransom and Sutch conclude that by 1870 the initial diversity of contractual forms had largely given way to a standardized sharecropping contract. See One Kind of Freedom, pp. 89, 97, 103.Google Scholar Their claim, however, is contradicted by the very sources they cite. See especially U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture, Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture of the Operations of the Department for the Year 1876 (Washington, D. C., 1877), p. 131.Google Scholar

⁶ For a compilation of the census data for the period 1880–1910, see Reid, Joseph D. Jr, ‘White Land, Black Labor, and Agricultural Stangnation: The Causes and Effects of Sharecropping in the Postbellum South,” Explorations in Economic History, 16 (01 1979), 40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ U. S. Industrial Commission, Report of the Industrial Commission on Agriculture, XI (Washington, D. C., 1901), p. 135;Google ScholarTaylor, Henry C., An Introduction to the Study of Agricultural Economics (London, 1905), p. 264;Google ScholarWilcox, E. V., “Lease Contracts Used in Renting Farms on Shares,” U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 650 (Feb. 26, 1918), pp. 7, 24;Google ScholarHoffsommer, Harold, ed., The Social and Economic Significance of Land Tenure in the Southwestern States (Chapel Hill, 1950), p. 388.Google Scholar See also Bizzell, William Bennett, “Farm Tenantry in the United States,” Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 278 (April 1921), p. 97;Google ScholarEdwards, Thomas J., “The Tenant System and Some Changes since Emancipation,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 49 (09 1913), 38–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸ Brannen, C. O., “Relation of Land Tenure to Plantation Organization,” U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 1269 (Oct. 18, 1924), pp. 6, 19, 68;Google ScholarAlston, Lee J., “Costs of Contracting and the Decline of Tenancy in the South, 1930–1960,” (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Washington, 1978), p. 3.Google Scholar See also U. S. Census Bureau, Plantation Farming in the United States (Washington, D. C., 1916), pp. 29–31.Google Scholar

⁹ Edwards, “The Tenant System,” p. 43;Google ScholarWoofter, Thomas Jackson Jr., Negro Migration: Changes in Rural Organization and Population of the Cotton Belt (New York, 1969 [1920]), p. 71.Google Scholar See also Taylor, Henry C., Outlines of Agricultural Economics (New York, 1925), pp. 355–57; Brannen, “Plantation Organization,” passim.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Loring, F. W. and Atkinson, C. F., Cotton Culture and the South, considered with reference to Emigration, (Boston, 1869);Google ScholarU. S. Census Office, Report on Cotton Production in the United States, 2 vols. (Washington, D. C., 1884);Google ScholarU. S. Senate, Committee on Education and Labor, Report on Relations between Labour and Capital, 4 vols. (Washington, D. C., 1885);Google ScholarU. S. Industrial Commission, Reports, X, XI (Washington, D. C., 1901).Google Scholar

¹¹ Enoch Marvin Banks, The Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia (New York, 1905);Google Scholar Report Preston Brooks, The Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, 1865–1912 (Madison, 1914).Google Scholar

¹² Gray, L. C. and others, “Farm Ownership and Tenancy,” in U. S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook, 1923 (Washington, D. C., 1924), pp. 507–600;Google ScholarBrannen, “Plantation Organization”, C. R. Chambers, “Relation of Land Income to Land Value,” U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 1224 (June 11, 1924).Google Scholar

¹³ Gray and others, “Farm Ownership and Tenancy,” p. 586.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Loring and Atkinson, Cotton Culture and the South, p. 30.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Hoffsommer, Land Tenure, p. 185. See also Wilcox, “Lease Contracts,” pp. 30–31.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Reid, “White Land, Black Labor,” pp. 39, 42, 44 (emphasis added). Note that in the words we have emphasized, Reid takes for granted what requires a great deal of theoretical and empirical study.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Wright, Gavin, “Freedom and the Southern Economy,” Explorations in Economic History, 16 (01. 1979), 103–04.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁸ Higgs, Robert, “Patterns of Farm Rental in the Georgia Cotton Belt, 1880–1900,” this JOURNAL, 34 (06 1974), 476.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Wright, “Freedom and the Southern Economy,” p. 104.Google Scholar

²⁰ U. S. Industrial Commission, Reports, XI, p. 135 (emphasis added).Google Scholar See also Barrow, David C. Jr, “A Georgia Plantation,” Scribner's Monthly, 21 (04 1881), 831–34;Google ScholarU. S. Senate, Committee on Education and Labor, Report, II, p. 159;Google ScholarU. S. Industrial Commission, Reports, X, pp. 475, 486;Google ScholarStone, Alfred Holt, “The Negro in the Yazoo-Mississipi Delta,” American Economic Association, Publications, 3rd Ser. 3 (02 1902), 251.Google Scholar

²¹ Higgs, Robert, “Race, Tenure, and Resource Allocation in Southern Agriculture, 1910,” this JOURNAL, 33 (03 1973), 158.Google Scholar

²² U. S. Senate, Committee on Education and Labor, Report, II, p. 164;Google ScholarTaylor, Outlines, pp. 343–44.Google Scholar See also Somers, Robert, The Southern States since the War, 1870–1871 (London, 1871), p. 147:Google ScholarNordhoff, Charles, The Cotton States in the Spring and Summer of 1875 (New York, 1876), p. 38;Google ScholarKelsey, Carl, “The Evolution of Negro Labor,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 21 (01 1903), 61–62;CrossRefGoogle ScholarStone, Alfred Holt, Studies in the American Race Problem (New York, 1908), p. 179.Google ScholarHofisommer, Land Tenure, p. 403, expresses the somewhat dissenting view that “managerial skill in and of itself may not be regarded as a tenure factor, yet the acquisition of such skill is dependent in a large measure on a particular type of tenure experience.”Google Scholar

²³ Barrow, “A Georgia Plantation,” p. 833; Chambers, “Relation of Land Income to Land Value,” p. 27; Taylor, Outlines, p. 343.Google Scholar

²⁴ U. S. Census Office, Report on Cotton Production, Pt. I, pp. 356, 476, 641, 819; Pt. II, pp. 166, 251, 439, 609; Banks, Economics of Land Tenure, p. 98; Gray and others, “Farm Ownership and Tenancy,” pp. 586–88;Google ScholarHoffsommer, Land Tenure, p. 198.Google Scholar

²⁵ Higgs, “Race, Tenure, and Resource Allocation,” pp. 153–56. Note that the verbal description of the model is seriously flawed by a printer's error;Google Scholar see this JOURNAL, 33 (09 1973), 668 for the correction. The mathematical and graphical description of the model remains unimpaired (at least by the printer).Google Scholar

²⁶ Ibid., pp. 156–59.

²⁷ U. S. Senate, Committee on Education and Labor, Report, IV, p. 30; Stone, Studies, p. 125. See also Southerner, “Agricultural Labor”, p. 329.Google Scholar

²⁸ Loring and Atkinson, Cotton Culture and the South, p. 31; Somers, Southern States, p. 60. See also U. S. Census Office, Report on Cotton Production, Pt. I, pp. 186, 356, 476, 641, 819; Pt. II, pp. 166, 439, 522, 609; U. S. Industrial Commission, Reports, X, p. 456;Google ScholarGray, L. C., Introduction to Agricultural Economics (New York, 1924), pp. 266–68.Google Scholar

²⁹ Somers, Southern States, p. 60; U. S. Senate, Committee on Education and Labor, Report, IV, pp. 78–79, 146.Google Scholar

³⁰ Aiston, Lee J., “Tenure Choice in Southern Agriculture, 1930–1960,” Explorations in Economic History, 18 (07 1981), 211–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³¹ Loring and Atkinson, Cotton Culture and the South, p. 30. See also U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture, Report for 1867, pp. 416–17, 419; Somers, Southern States, p. 147; Southerner, “Agricultural Labor,” pp. 328, 330, 333, 336; King, The Great South, pp. 298–99.Google Scholar

³² Gray, Introduction, pp. 274, 277.Google Scholar

³³ U. S. Census Office, Report on Cotton Production, Pt. II, pp. 165, 519; U. S. Senate, Committee on Education and Labor, Report, 11, pp. 171–72; IV, p. 18; A. B. Hurt, “Mississippi: Its Climate, Soil, Productions, and Agricultural Capabilities,” U. S. Department of Agricuture, Miscellaneous Special Report No. 3 (1884), p. 30.Google Scholar

³⁴ Higgs, “Patterns of Farm Rental,” pp. 470–73.Google Scholar

³⁵ Aiston, “Tenure Choice,” pp. 221–28.Google Scholar

³⁶ U. S. Industrial Commission, Reports, X, pp. 475–79; Edwards, “The Tenant System,” pp. 41–44; Taylor, Outlines, p. 341.Google Scholar

³⁷ Higgs, “Patterns of Farm Rental,” pp. 474–77.Google Scholar

³⁸ Gray and others, “Farm Ownership and Tenancy,” p. 529; Hoffsommer, Land Tenure, p. 199; Woofter, Negro Migration, p. 82. Incidentally, when livestock was kept in a central plantation barn, many croppers and tenants reported to the census enumerators that they had no work stock on their “farms.” Economic historians who uncritically employ the census data incorporating these specious reports are asking for trouble.Google Scholar

³⁹ The plantation schedules for Georgia are in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the University of Georgia. We are most grateful to Robert Willingham, Head Librarian of the Rare Book Collection, for permission to copy the schedules and to J. Larry Gulley, Assistant Rare Books Librarian, for sharing with us his knowledge of Robert Preston Brooks. Without their assistance and hospitality, our work in Georgia would have been much less enjoyable. In addition, we acknowledge the able research assistance of John Sheftall of the University of Georgia.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Brooks, The Agrarian Revolution, passim, esp. p. 115. Brooks did not use the data contained in the schedules in a rigorous manner but rather in an illustrative capacity.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid., p. 115.

⁴² The regression coefficient for this vanable has no predictable sign. The variable is included in the equation to control for the absence of the theoretically correct measure of land value, namely, value per improved acre.Google Scholar

⁴³ The regression coefficient for this variable has no theoretically predictable sign, but we must include the variable in equations (2) and (6) in order to isolate the net shifts between the fixed-rent tenant and wage worker classes.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Sowell, Thomas, Knowledge and Decisions (New York, 1980), p. 65.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Numerous studies indicate that the labor requirements for cotton were at least twice as great as for corn, soybeans, or hay, even when a tractor was employed. See E. L. Langsford and G. H. Thibodeaux, “Plantation Organization and Operation in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Area,” U. S. Department of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin No. 628 (May 1939), PP. 58, 60, 64–65, 67;Google ScholarFulmer, John L., Agricultural Progress in the Cotton Belt since 1920 (Chapel Hill, 1950), p. 61;Google Scholar U. S. Works Progress Administration and U. S. Department of Agriculture, Studies of Changing Techniques and Employment in Agricukure, Report No. 15 (Washington, D. C., 1941), pp. 114–50.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ To the extent that our measures of land values are inaccurate—and individual land values are often reported with imprecision—the regression coefficient of the cotton variable (ICOT) will be biased toward zero because cotton was usually planted on the more valuable land, and land value has an opposite effect on the contractual mix.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Kennedy, Peter, A Guide to Econometrics (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979), p. 113;Google ScholarRao, Potluri and Miller, Roger LeRoy, Applied Econometrics (Belmont, California, 1971), p. 185.Google Scholar