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Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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`<br />

Shankings, or stabbings, were fairly common incidents in some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> rougher gutbucket<br />

joints a person might wander into for a drink and some cheap entertainment, hence <strong>the</strong><br />

<br />

SH A R E C R OPPIN G<br />

Sharecropping is <strong>the</strong> working <strong>of</strong> a piece <strong>of</strong> land by a tenant in exchange for a share <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

<br />

United States after <strong>the</strong> Civil War ended in 1865 and plantation owners, as well as <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

freed slaves, had to come up with a new economic system.<br />

The Civil War ended slavery in <strong>the</strong> United States and put sou<strong>the</strong>rn landowners in a<br />

pickle. Without slaves, how would <strong>the</strong> plantation owners farm <strong>the</strong>ir vast tracts <strong>of</strong> land?<br />

<br />

<br />

seeds and fertilizer, let alone hire workers. Meanwhile, <strong>the</strong> freed<br />

slaves had no work and nowhere to go. Many were living in <strong>the</strong>ir old slave quarters, or in<br />

<br />

o keep<br />

from starving to death.<br />

<br />

York C Ity, 1990.<br />

photo © Joseph A. Rosen<br />

154

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