Were the Black Codes another form of slavery???? Based on Okten’s statements, discuss how the sharecropping/crop lien?system created a vicious cycle.? Was this system simply an

Charles H. Otken

When all the cotton made during the year has been delivered and sold,

and the farmer comes out in debt on the 31st of December, that farmer

has taken the first step toward bankruptcy. If he is a small farmer, $25,

$50, or $75 is a heavy burden to carry. Take these cases: Hezekiah

Drawbridge owes $25 at the close of the year; his credit limit was $75.

Stephen Goff owes $50; his credit limit ws $150. Buff Tafton owes $75;

his credit limit was $250. The year during which these debts were made

was fairly good, the purchases were moderate, there was no sickness in

these families. The following year similar credit arrangements are made,

and they purchase the full amount agreed upon between them and their

merchants. From some unaccountable or accountable cause, the crop is a

little worse, or the price of cotton is a little less. The winding up of the

second year’s farm operations finds Drawbridge, Goff, and Tafton with

the following debts confronting them, respectively: $65, $115, $155.

The outlook is blue for these farmers, and they feel blue. Thus, or nearly

thus, this system operates in thousands of cases. Each year the plunge

into debt is deeper; each year the burden is heavier. The struggle is woe-

begone. Cares are many, smiles are few, and the comforts of life are

scantier. This is the bitter fruit of a method of doing business which

comes to the farmer in the guise of friendship, but rules him with

despotic power. To a large class of men, the inscription printed in large,

bold characters over the door of the credit system is: “The man who

enters here leaves hope behind,” and it tells a sad and sorrowful history.

Anxious days, sleepless nights, deep wrinkles, gray hairs, wan faces,

cheerless old age, and perhaps abject poverty make up, in part, the

melancholy story.

Charles H. Otken, The Ills of the South or Related Causes Hostile to the

General Prosperity of the Southern People (New York: Putnam, 1894).