Crop-Lien System Entraps Black Farmers in Debt Peonage

Through the 1880s and 1890s, the crop-lien system locked Black tenant farmers into perpetual debt to landlords and merchants who charged 50-100% annual interest on supplies advanced against future harvests. Contracts required tenants to sell their cotton exclusively to the landlord, who kept the accounts. Federal investigators documented systematic fraud in accounting. Black families who tried to leave were subject to criminal prosecution under contract enforcement laws.