Which labor system kept many African Americans in a subservient economic position after the Civil War?

Sharecropping became a prevalent labor system in the South after the Civil War, fundamentally impacting the economic status of African Americans. The system involved former enslaved individuals renting small plots of land from landowners, who were often white, in exchange for a share of the crop yield. This arrangement initially seemed to offer some autonomy and opportunity for economic advancement. However, it quickly turned into a cycle of debt and dependency.

Sharecroppers often found themselves in a precarious financial situation, as they had to borrow money for supplies and rent, leading to a situation where they could never quite pay off their debts. This kept many African Americans tied to the land in a state of economic subservience, as they struggled to achieve true financial independence. Consequently, sharecropping entrenched a system of agricultural labor that perpetuated inequality and limited the economic mobility of African Americans in the post-war South, effectively creating a new form of servitude that mirrored conditions before the Civil War.

Other labor systems, such as skilled labor, wage labor, and indentured servitude, did not have the same pervasive effect on the post-war African American workforce. Skilled labor often required specific training and was less accessible to many former enslaved people. Wage labor, although