Peonage

Peonage, system of servitude, formerly common in Latin America, particularly in the area now comprising Mexico. Historically, peonage evolved from the 16th-century encomienda system, by which the Spanish conquistadors were given proprietary rights over the Native Americans on the feudal estates granted to them by the Spanish king, and from the later repartimiento, or assessment, system; under the latter system Native American laborers were required to work part of each year for the colonial government. In the 19th century, after the nations of Latin America achieved independence, debt peonage was instituted and became the basis of the economic system. The peon, in debt to the employer for both money and supplies, was bound to labor in the mines or plantations until the debt was paid. Often the debt was so exaggerated that the peonage had to be handed down from generation to generation; but in the 20th century, laws prohibiting such servitude were passed.

In the United States before the American Civil War (1861-1865), forms of peonage existed among Mexicans and Native Americans of the New Mexico and Arizona territories, and in the South it was experienced by both poor blacks and whites. After the Civil War and the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits involuntary servitude except as punishment, several southern states passed individual peonage laws. At this time, leasing prisoners to independent contractors as members of chain gangs was begun. By this practice, the convicts, their legs shackled to prevent escape, were connected to one another by a continuous chain and forced to work in the fields and mines as well as build roads. In 1910 the U.S. Supreme Court declared state laws permitting such practices unconstitutional.

Sharecropping, a system of peonage, was popular in the southeastern United States from the end of the Civil War until widespread mechanization of the production of cotton and tobacco made the system unprofitable. By this system, the sharecropper and the sharecropper's family provide their labor in return for a share in the profits from the crop they produce. The owner of the land provides not only land but equipment, animals, and seed and living accommodations for the sharecropper and his family as well.