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Position:Home>Genealogy> On a census when you see Farmer or Share Cropper, are they the same thing?


Question:Since your ID is Texas, can one assume you are talking about the US census??

Share Cropper is really a very, very, very unsual identifier in the US census. You might have come across it for sure, but that would be an individual census taker's choice.

Normally, in the US census, you will see "Farmer" as the occupation. But then look further on and see if they Own or Rent their land.

They are all farmers, but a farmer who rents his land could technically be a share cropper. The fine tuning difference is that technically a share cropper would in fact "share" their crops with the owner of the land -- vice monetary payment. That's because it was more of a barter society back when the term originated. But of course over time, it came to also be associated with a "renter" who would at times provide monitary payment.

Someone in a census listed as a share cropper vice farmer, would probably more commonly be identified as a farmer who rents his property.

You also have to be careful because sometimes in the census, someone will be listed as a "farmer" when they should be listed as a "farm hand" or "farm worker". Occupation was not a primary interest item in the census (1930 and before of course). What was more important was the actual COUNT of people. All the other information was nice to get.


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Since your ID is Texas, can one assume you are talking about the US census??

Share Cropper is really a very, very, very unsual identifier in the US census. You might have come across it for sure, but that would be an individual census taker's choice.

Normally, in the US census, you will see "Farmer" as the occupation. But then look further on and see if they Own or Rent their land.

They are all farmers, but a farmer who rents his land could technically be a share cropper. The fine tuning difference is that technically a share cropper would in fact "share" their crops with the owner of the land -- vice monetary payment. That's because it was more of a barter society back when the term originated. But of course over time, it came to also be associated with a "renter" who would at times provide monitary payment.

Someone in a census listed as a share cropper vice farmer, would probably more commonly be identified as a farmer who rents his property.

You also have to be careful because sometimes in the census, someone will be listed as a "farmer" when they should be listed as a "farm hand" or "farm worker". Occupation was not a primary interest item in the census (1930 and before of course). What was more important was the actual COUNT of people. All the other information was nice to get.

My understanding would be..

Farmer...owns his own land
Sharecropper....rents his land from a farmer

both farm...but the census makes the distinction of ownership

I think a share cropper is a farmer but he doesn't own his land. He shares with the land owner.

No. Farmer is anyone operating a farm, and normally owns the land. Share cropping is a system set up for labor reasons.. one guy owns the land, but has other persons working on the land for him. They (literally) share the crop.

a farmer is generally a person/family that owns the land that is farmed. a sharecropper is generally a farm laborer or one that recieves income as a portion of farm crops sold , or is paid a wage.