Chattel Mortgages

Even if your grandparents weren't raised in the Wiregrass, you might still be interested in this post if they were SHARECROPPERS. I'm working on a "CliffsNotes"-type study guide for DEVIL MAKE A THIRD. Right now, these are my first two sentences: "Chapter One introduces the reader to many important themes which will be repeated and will progress in subsequent chapters. Most important will be the life-long burning desire of the protaganist to escape and to never return to rural life."

So ya might ask yourself,"What's so bad about rural life?" Well, the rural life that the hero of this novel seeks to escape is

a life dominated by child labor, debt peonage and unrelenting, uncompensated labor.

The following album contains a clipping from the March 25, 1915 LEIGHTON NEWS and images of Alabama cotton chattel or crop lien mortgages from my collection (you'll notice rodent tooth marks on these documents. That's because ROBERTOREG saved them from the dumpster). Some of these debts incurred by these mortgages are to be paid off in money and if not, they're to be paid off in "all crops of all kinds grown by myself and my family" or even all your property. No money was involved in mortgages paid off by "one half entire crop made" or "pounds cotton due" or "750 pounds lint" "by sale 4 B/C" [by sale of four bales cotton] and look what the person who learned to sign their "X" to the contract promises: THE LABOR OF HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN in order to make the crop and IF THEY FAIL, he promises to pay for the extra labor needed to bring the crop in.

Many of your grandparents who were sharecroppers signed contracts worded like this:

“ I have purchased of Joe Blow & Co. the amount of eighty dollars, and have bargained for such other advances as I may need to make a crop during the year 1906, which sums advanced and to be advanced I owe to said Joe Blow & Co., and promise to pay them the first day of October, 1906. Now, in consideration of said purchase and in order to secure the payment of said amounts, I do hereby bargain, sell and convey unto the said Joe Blow & Co., heirs and assigns, the following property, to wit: my entire crop of cotton, corn, fodder, peas, and cottonseed, raised by MYSELF, MY FAMILY & MY TENANTS on my place in Houston County, State of Alabama, and I agree to deliver to Joe Blow & Co. my cotton as fast as picked out and ginned until all claims is paid. To have and to hold, with all appurtenances, to said Joe Blow & Co., their heirs and assigns forever." (all of this reminds me of an old shyster buddy of mine who used to finish up mortgage closings by tellin' the victim,"Now you look over that contract and if see anything in there that's TO YOUR ADVANTAGE, please tell us and we'll MAKE DAMN SURE to change it...")