They do not have enough money to pay for goods from the stores.
Step-by-step explanation:
Peonage, also known as debt slavery, bondage or servitude. It is an approach where the employers can compel their workers to wok without paying or paying them with little debt. The abolition of slavery passed right after the civil war. African American slaves were freed from their owners but they were incapable of taking care of themselves due to their indebtedness.
They made a pact with the whites by renting a small area of land. Also, they pledged to share their crops to the landowners and landowners provided them with their essential needs and seeds to produce crops. Since the cotton price went down between the 1880s and 1990s, they ended up back in the slavery state. Also, the ration pf the essentials provided to them was reduced.