sharecropper

[shair-krop-er]

noun

1. a tenant farmer who pays as rent a share of the crop.

sharecropper

/ ˈʃɛəˌkrɒpə /

noun

1. a farmer, esp a tenant farmer, who pays over a proportion of a crop or crops as rent

Word History and Origins

Origin of sharecropper¹

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15; share ¹ + cropper

Example Sentences

Miles Caton, actor: The first time I got the script, they prompted it as a 19-year-old sharecropper who’s a musician, and he would have been Sam Cooke if it was 20 years later.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

My parents were sharecroppers in Arkansas until 1951, when my dad dared stand up to his boss for not paying him a fair wage at the agricultural weigh station.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Butler was born to sharecropper parents on Dec. 8, 1939, in Sunflower, Miss., and moved at age 3 with his family to Chicago.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Wilson, the son of North Carolina sharecroppers, became one of the first Black reporters on air in Los Angeles in 1969.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 allowed white landowners to keep government benefit payments instead of passing them onto Black sharecroppers who were actually farming the land.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• grower 
• laborer 
• peasant 
• producer 
• rancher