Sharecropping and Reconstruction plans

Sharecropping: a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land.
Tenant Farming:  one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord.

The Civil War was mainly fought on southern soil, so after the war ended the US needed a way to quickly get it back in shape so they could focus on things like discrimination and new laws for the newley freed slaves.