Under a Mississippi Sun: Portraits of Depression-Era Sharecroppers

3 minute read

In September 1936, two months before the debut issue of LIFE magazine hit newsstands, Henry Luce and his colleagues at Time Inc. produced an 80-page “dummy” issue of the as-yet-unnamed publication. Designed and produced, in large part, to spark interest among potential advertisers, the issue was the same sort of large-format, photo-driven entity that would soon become familiar to millions of readers around the world as a weekly called LIFE.

The dummy also featured the same combination of international news, celebrity coverage, science and tech reporting and downright goofy articles (one on playing golf in a massive rainstorm stands out) that LIFE would perfect in the coming decades. And, like countless issues of the magazine down through the years, the dummy included photographs by the one and only Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Eisenstaedt pictures (some of which made their way into another Time Inc. title, Fortune magazine, in 1937) chronicle the lives—at work, at worship, at rest, at play—of sharecroppers on “the world’s largest staple cotton plantation,” near Greenville, Mississippi.

Seen all these years later, what’s perhaps most astonishing about the photos, aside from their near-uniform excellence, is how companionable, and how intimate, they feel.

Made by a man born in what is now northern Poland; a World War I veteran who served in the German Army; a dapper figure who began his career as a photographer amid the heady cultural ferment of Weimar Germany and emigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1930s to escape growing Nazi oppression, Eisenstaedt’s pictures of poor, Mississippi cotton workers suggest that this worldly European Jew was able—as he was throughout his career, with virtually everyone he photographed—to make the subjects of his pictures perfectly comfortable.

Whether he was making portraits of legendary actresses, powerful politicians, famous scientists, superstar athletes or the average man, woman or child on the street, Alfred Eisenstaedt had the enviable gift of putting people at ease. (One notable exception: A booze-soaked Ernest Hemingway, who “almost killed” Eisenstaedt in Cuba in 1952.)

Here, LIFE.com presents a number of Eisenstaedt’s photos of 48-year-old sharecropper Lonnie Fair and his family, friends and neighbors, working their plots of soil on the Delta & Pine Land Co. plantation in Scott, Miss., in the midst of the Great Depression. (“Lonnie Fair,” Fortune reported in its March 1937 issue, “is a paragon of good fortune, as U.S. sharecroppers go. Last year he got $1,001.10 from D.P.L.: credit–$482.76, cash–$518.34.”)

There is poverty in these pictures, and, to a degree that might be shocking to those unfamiliar with the post-Civil War plantation business, there is exploitation, as well. No photojournalist worth his or her salt—least of all Alfred Eisenstaedt—would romanticize or otherwise trivialize the harshness of a sharecropper’s life.

But through Eisenstaedt’s lens, and through the man’s capacity for seeing things both clearly, and empathetically, the far deeper reaction most of us will experience after spending time with his photos is a probably one part wonderment, and three parts gratitude.

After all, would could fail to be thankful that a photographer of Eisenstaedt’s talent and compassion was dispatched to chronicle—and, in a real sense, to immortalize—this era, and these lives?


Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.

Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi sharecropper, 1936.
Mississippi sharecropper, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.
Mississippi sharecroppers, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Still life, Mississippi, 1936.
Still life, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Sharecropper Lonnie Fair and his family praying before a meal, Mississippi, 1936.
Sharecropper Lonnie Fair and his family praying before a meal, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Children, Mississippi, 1936.
Children, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Schoolhouse, Mississippi, 1936.
Schoolhouse, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Young girl, Mississippi, 1936.
Young girl, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Child and dog, asleep in a field while the family works, 1936.
Child and dog, asleep in a field while the family works, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
At rest, Mississippi, 1936.
At rest, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Lonnie Fair, sharecropper, Mississippi, 1936.
Lonnie Fair, sharecropper, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Lonnie Fair's son gets water from pump.
Lonnie Fair's son gets water from pump.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Enormous catch, Mississippi, 1936.
Enormous catch, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Sharecropper playing guitar and singing beside a tub of scalding water at hog-killing time, Mississippi, 1936.
Sharecropper playing guitar and singing beside a tub of scalding water at hog-killing time, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Women on porch, watching children play, Mississippi, 1936.
Women on porch, watching children play, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Sharecropper Lonnie Fair's daughter drinking water, 1936.
Sharecropper Lonnie Fair's daughter drinking water, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Lonnie Fair and his daughter listen to a Victrola on their sharecropping farm in Mississippi, 1936.
Lonnie Fair and his daughter listen to a Victrola on their sharecropping farm in Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Lonnie Fair's daughter sleeping in the sun with her dogs, 1936.
Lonnie Fair's daughter sleeping in the sun with her dogs, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Usher at a theater, Mississippi, 1936.
Usher at a theater, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Medical clinic, Mississippi, 1936.
Medical clinic, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
A young man and woman in Sunday finery pass on the street, Mississippi, 1936.
A young man and woman in Sunday finery pass on the street, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
A girl singing a hymn during Sunday church service, Mississippi, 1936.
A girl singing a hymn during Sunday church service, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Sunday school, Mississippi, 1936.
Sunday school, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Grieving widow being escorted from the gravesite of her late husband after his burial service, Mississippi, 1936.
Grieving widow being escorted from the gravesite of her late husband after his burial service, Mississippi, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Mississippi scene, 1936.
Mississippi scene, 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Article, "dummy" issue of magazine that would become LIFE, 1936.
The "dummy" issue of magazine that would become LIFE, 1936.The LIFE Picture Collection
Article, "dummy" issue of magazine that would become LIFE, 1936.
Article, "dummy" issue of magazine that would become LIFE, 1936.The LIFE Picture Collection
Article, "dummy" issue of magazine that would become LIFE, 1936.
Article, "dummy" issue of magazine that would become LIFE, 1936.The LIFE Picture Collection
Article, "dummy" issue of magazine that would become LIFE, 1936.
Article, "dummy" issue of magazine that would become LIFE, 1936.The LIFE Picture Collection
Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1936.
Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1936.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

More Must-Reads from TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com