Local merchants provide food and other supplies to the sharecropper on credit. In exchange for the land and supplies, the cropper pays the owner a share of the crop at the end of the season, typically one-half to two-thirds. The cropper uses his share to pay off his debt to the merchant. If there is any cash left over, the cropper keeps it--but if it comes to less than what they owe, they remain in debt.

A new system of credit, the crop lien, became closely associated with sharecropping. Under