Reshard was considered “a good share, a good boss, a good master,” in George’s words, “ ’cause he let us break even.” Most other sharecroppers ended deeper in debt than before. “They could never leave as long as they owed the master,” George said. “That made the planter as much master as any master during slavery, because the sharecropper was bound to him, belonged to him, almost like a slave.”
