This is a method for dividing up the profits and expenses from remote
quarters.

A more complete account would give you the number of shares made by the
slave, by the over seer, and by any white servants at work on the quarter.

I forget what values GW placed on his share, but I know it can be derived
from his account books.  They included so many bushels of wheat/hand, so
many bushels of corn, and so many pounds of tobacco.  these were the amounts
each laborer was expected to produce.  Once the harvest was in, GW paid the
overseer however many shares he had agreed to in their contract, and then he
(GW) got the rest.

The system was very commonly used by 18th century planters.

I think Lorena Walsh's book on plantation slavery has material on this.

Peter V. Bergstrom, PhD
Manager, Information Systems, Lighthouse Institute
Archivist, Illinois Addiction Studies Archive
Chestnut Health Systems
720 W. Chestnut St.
Bloomington, IL

Webmaster  http://www.chestnut.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Henry Wiencek [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, 19 June 2001 3:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: SHARECROPPER?


In George Washington's ledger for 1765 he wrote that some of his tobacco
crops have "negro sharers."
Henry Wiencek

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