[Three Manuscript Sharecropping Agreements Between South Carolina Cotton Farmer M.T. Fleming and His Tenants]

Anderson County, S.C.: February 10, 1898. Very good.. Three manuscript documents, totaling [6]pp., on matching folio lined paper, with manuscript docketing. Old folds, minor fold separations to one document, overall minor wear. A trio of separate sharecropping agreements between South Carolina landowner M.J. Fleming and tenant farmers named Emery Wilson, C.C. Brown, and M. Capps, with all three contracts signed on the same day, February 10, 1898. Each tenant contracts to farm separate plots of land in Anderson County, South Carolina, and agrees to remit to Fleming different quantities of cotton and pay varying amounts of monetary reimbursements for the privilege of tending the land. For example, Fleming offers Wilson "a part of the Bryant farm supposed to be about twenty five to thirty acres, with the Will Bryant house to live in, firewood, and pasturage, and thirty seven and 92/100 dollars in money or supplies, and agrees to take thirteen hundred and fifty pounds of good middling lint cotton." In return, Wilson agrees to "live on the premises" of the Bryant farm, as well as "to take good care of the land and buildings, to prepare the land in a farm like manner, to plant and cultivate the crops in due season, and gather the crops in good condition." Wilson then agrees to remit to Fleming the agreed-to quantity of cotton, "neatly baled," to reimburse the $37.92 fronted by Fleming, and agrees to "not make way with nor dispose of the crops until said debt and Rent is paid...." Presumably, Wilson would be entitled to keep the excess of cotton he produced for the year. The document is signed at the conclusion by both men. Interestingly, Wilson's contract is the only one of the three to include an extension of the agreement, with mild tweaks, for the following year. The language of other two agreements is similar, with some differences in the terms. It is not expressly stated in the agreements whether the tenant farmers are white, African American, or otherwise. A rare opportunity to study the practice of sharecropping near the turn of the 20th century.