Re: Sharecropping: question to Melvin

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> No historian disputes that Yankee finance capital - imperialism or Wall
> Street, took possession of the plantation system in the aftermath of the
> Civil War.
>
>
> Melvin P.

I think that the question was about ownership. My reading indicates that
the same class of people still owned the plantations, but adapted to the
new realities such as they were. At first they tried to utilize gang
labor, but the ex-slaves resisted since working conditions were too
similar to the past, even with the same sadistic overseers in charge.
When slaves refused to work, union soldiers were actually deployed to
impose law and order. Wiener describes a rather disgusting affinity
between union officers and plantation owners, at whose homes the
soldiers were often guests of honor. Some class struggle.


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