Bedsole History from 1673 With Documentation - NCGenWeb

For those Bedsoles fortunate enough to own their own land, harvest-time meant they picked, hauled, traded,
stored and sold their produce and crops, for cash and/or trade-goods. But the vast majority of them, like us,
ended up being share-croppers.That means they would work all year for a landowner and when the crops
were harvested and sold in the fall and the costs deducted, the landowner would theoretically share the
difference with the sharecropper. However, since the landowner had made advance arrangements with a
store owner to allow the farmer a specified amount of credit during the year for food, clothing, and farming
tools, the cost of all that had to be deducted from the profits before any profit was divided between them.
In sharecropping, the landowner would guarantee payment in the fall to the store owner and the farmer was
always forced to almost starve his family because the landowner would set such a low credit limit, such as
$300 for the entire year. Even back then, that was not a lot of money. The farmer simply could not adequately
provide for his family on such a small pittance. Imagine, $25 a month for 12 people, which was to pay for any
and all expenses.
Therefore, hunting and fishing were meaningful activities, for acquiring meat. In addition, the landowner and
storekeeper but not the farmer, kept “the record” all year, since the farmers could neither read nor write, this
left the storekeeper and landowner free to overcharge the poor farmers, whatever they could get away with.
But, that’s how share-cropping was done and had been done as far back as anyone could remember. My
own parents also were typical share-croppers their whole lives and that’s how we lived. In late 1926, when
his own father died, my dad, being the oldest son and responsible for his fathers estate, entered into verbal
agreements with a store owner in Alabama, who eventually foreclosed on him and took all my grandfathers
land, eleven houses and property and left us no choice but to become share-croppers.
This did not mean a lot of difference in living for us, though. Although my dad could probably have prevailed
in court in this case, he was very ignorant of the law and procedures and his word was his bond.
Unfortunately, he assumed everyone else was like that too. Very big mistake.
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That was and still is, a very big, very costly, and very sad mistake. One I still make myself, which gives you
some indication of my level of stupidity and total lack of intelligence. Anyway, share-cropping meant the
landowners made their living, fortunes as it were, and very existence easier by riding on the backs of the
poor, ignorant,desperately starving sharecroppers. In their despicable ignorance, the Bedsole share-croppers
were horribly mistreated in that regard from the beginning, until they quit being sharecroppers about 1950,
after this country became industrialized..
"Settling up" though, was something which was done about the end of December, every year. I was fourteen
or fifteen when I was finally allowed to go to one with my oldest brother, Bill. We went to the landowner's
house, went inside and sat down with him at the table. He got out a shirt-pocket sized notebook and started
adding up the "costs". Since the way to settle up, was for the landowner and he alone, to determine how
much the farmer owed, we just stood there as he read off the endless list. Once my brother said he didn't
remember picking up four hundred pounds of fertilizer. Bill said it was three hundred pounds and the land
owner immediately flew into a rage. How dare Bill question him. "There it was in black and white" in that
notebook.
In the end, as was the custom, the landowner told Bill he still owed three hundred fifty dollars, above what
the “profits” were, and how we would have to stay and farm another year for him. As Bill and I were walking
back home in the dark, although I was young, I was astounded and appalled at the obvious, total scalping we
had just witnessed. I began to question Bill mercilessly about the total lack of evidence and how in the world