Final answer:
The goal of the sharecropping system was to keep sharecroppers, especially Black and poor White individuals, in a cycle of debt and poverty, ensuring they remained economically dependent and subservient. It was a means to benefit landlords and merchants, and it was supported by a hierarchy where sharecroppers were last to benefit financially from their own labor.
Step-by-step explanation:
The overall goal of the sharecropping system was not to empower Black people, but rather to maintain a status quo where they remained economically dependent and subservient. Despite the end of slavery, this system emerged as a way to meet the labor demands of the agricultural sector without granting freed individuals a true opportunity for independence. The landlords and merchants benefited by keeping sharecroppers, both Black and poor White individuals, in a perpetual state of debt and poverty. Essentially, sharecroppers were forced to day in and day out rent land to cultivate crops and then had to give a significant portion of their harvest as payment for the rent, often leaving them unable to gather enough wealth to break the cycle of poverty or buy land of their own.
Moreover, the crop lien system put sharecroppers at a severe disadvantage, as they had to assume the risks and finance aspects of the production with high-interest rates in a hierarchy where they were the last to be paid, only after landlords, merchants, and banks had taken their shares. The dire situation was further exacerbated by domestic terror organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, which actively sought to prevent Black people from achieving any form of political, social, or economic equality.