Why was it difficult for freed people to get out of poverty?

After emancipation, many freed people worked as sharecroppers, renting land and giving the landowner a share of their crops. Once they paid for supplies and other debts, they often had little money left to save or use to improve their situation. So sharecropping made it difficult to earn enough to escape poverty. Choice C describes a condition of slavery, not the main post-emancipation problem asked about.

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