26. 佃农 (sharecropper) (2011/8/8)
第一部分先讲了一些关于黑人解放(emancipation)在Civil War之后的发展,大概就是变得蓬勃。讲到黑人解放运动之所以发展起来,在于Civil War之后黑奴被解放,因此比较有余暇从事这方面的活动。美国civil war之后,以前的黑奴获得了自由,有了更多属于自己的时间(有题,问原因),美国南方的奴隶成为sharecropper,现在也享有耕种所收获的庄稼的一部分权益(好像是一半),同时有更多的闲暇时间,也带来了南方劳动力的短缺,于是劳工的工资上升。讲了这一新制度对黑人群众的好处。他们在人力市场变得很吃香(原文没那么说,但基本是这个意思)所以地主们只好和他们谈判分给他们half share of profits in crops。然后劳动条件还变好了不用住小黑屋被虐待神马的(有个迷惑项从这里出,说地主们不和群众分享经济利益,我觉得其实还是分享了)黑人的生活可以变得更好。
第二部分讲由于佃农制的普及,有一种burden system(好像是这样拼)的系统相应而生。作者认为奴隶解放后,虽然黑人成为sharecropper,自己拥有田地,但是还是要依靠白人给他们提供supplies for farming,而黑人的only collateral is their crop yield.因为佃农需要自己出钱买种子,但是往往因为没钱,所以只好先用年底的收成和种子商(往往是地主)来预支种子,仅有收成这个唯一的筹码,佃农在最后常常变成得根据地主的要求来耕种作物─大多数时候被要求种棉花。因为大家都种棉花倒致棉花过剩价格大跌,最后受害最深的往往还是佃农本身。黑人的收入还是和以前比起来没有多大变化。
1.主旨题。
2.黑人本来是怎么设想的——我选设想自己也能从地主那分到些利润。
3.如果地主不让种棉花,会有什么情况?——我选的棉花价格就不会下降。
4.佃农遇到的第一个阻碍是什么?(定位P4)
5.是什么背景让佃农制普及?(因为缺乏劳工,我记得是E)
(Sharecropping and tenant farming were substitutes for paid labor where little cash was available to pay wages. A sharecropper raised part of the landlord’s crop and was paid a share of the profits after deductions for living expenses and the cost of tools and supplies. A tenant farmer sold what he raised and paid the landlord a share of the profits as rent. The landlord either owned the crop (in sharecropping) or had a lien on it (in tenant farming); if the profit was low, he got his share first. The cropper or tenant took what was left or, if none was left, got an advance to keep going until the next harvest.
Desperate to recover financially, landowners relied almost exclusively on their traditional cash crop, cotton. Agriculture failed to diversify. By 1879, cotton production equaled its prewar peak.
However, the return of high levels of cotton production failed to improve the lot of most Mississippians because the price for cotton declined through most of the postwar decades, and living costs rose. Mounting debt forced many small farmers to give up their land and become tenants or sharecroppers. Kept in perpetual debt because they could seldom earn enough to pay off their yearly advances, few were able to escape the sharecropping and tenant farming system. Not until World War II (1939-1945), when widespread mechanization of cotton production made sharecropping unprofitable, did the system begin to disappear.)



-- by 会员 rcapple (2011/8/14 1:11:19)