The correct answer is B) most African American sharecroppers ended each year owing money to the landlord, thus preventing them from leaving the land.
The statement that explains how the sharecropping system kept emancipated slaves tied to the plantation land they had worked before the Civil War is "most African American sharecroppers ended each year owing money to the landlord, thus preventing them from leaving the land."
After the Civil War, farmers paid rent for working on the farm fields owned by landlords. They also worked with landlords and they were paid low wages. But the working conditions were not fair for farmers to prosper and instead of making money and grow, farmers ended up with big unpayable debts in a vice circle.
The other options of the question were A) sharecroppers who failed to pay the landlord the amount owed were sent to forced-labor prisons until the debt was paid. C) only large landowners such as former plantation owner had enough land to make a sharecropping arrangement possible and profitable. D) the typical sharecropping contract required farmers to pledge to work the land for a long period, thus keeping African Americans from leaving agricultural labor.
