After the civil was plantations were broken up into smaller plots and rented to tenant farmers. The tenant farmers paid rent but had their own tools and seeds necessary for farming. The sharecroppers had no money and gave the portion of their crops as rent but they were in constant debt.
When the federal troops left the south after the civil was strict racial segregation laws known as the Jim Crow laws were placed in effect. The laws separated blacks from whites in all aspects of society: transportation, schools, public places. In Plessey vs. Ferguson the Supreme Court upheld "separate but…
