Samuel Crews Sharecropper Contract

Access and use

Location of collection:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Special Collections, University Libraries (0434)
Newman Library
Virginia Tech
P.O. Box 90001
560 Drillfield Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24062-9001
Contact for questions and access:
Phone: (540) 231-6308
Fax: (540) 231-3694
Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials.

Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction. Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.

Preferred citation:

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Samuel Crews Sharecropper Contract, Ms2008-067, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Summary

Extent:
0.1 Cubic Feet 1 folder
Creator:
Crews, Samuel, b. abt. 1846
Abstract:
The Samuel Crews Sharecropper Contract is a manuscript agreement that outlines the terms in which Samuel Crews can farm, but not own, lands belonging to S. and R. Dodd in Halifax County, Virginia, for the year 1877.
Language:
The materials in the collection are in English.
Preferred citation:

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Samuel Crews Sharecropper Contract, Ms2008-067, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Background

Scope and content:

The Samuel Crews Sharecropper Contract is a manuscript agreement between S. and R. Dodd and Samuel Crews for the year 1877. The contract outlines the terms in which Samuel Crews can farm, but not own, land in Halifax County, Virginia. In the document, Crews agrees to pay the Dodds one fourth of crops grown and to build a fence. Crops cultivated include tobacco, corn, wheat, and oats. This diversified list of crops represents the shift away from a tobacco monoculture that occurred between 1870 and 1880 in Virginia.

Biographical / historical:

Samuel Walter Crews appears in Virginia's 1850 census under southern Halifax County as a four-year-old boy, thus placing his birth in around 1846. Crews was born to James Henry Crews and Marguerite Walker and had three sisters: Anne E., Phebe M. and Mary F.

Crews was a sharecropper, one who farms land without owning it for a share of the yield. Sharecropping became popular in Halifax County, Virginia, after the abolition of slavery caused landowners to seek new forms of labor.

Acquisition information:
The Samuel Crews Sharecropper Contract was purchased by Special Collections.
Processing information:

The processing and description of the Samuel Crews Sharecropper Contract occurred in August 2008.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard