Sharecropping primarily affected African American farmers in the Southern United States during the post-Civil War era. After the abolition of slavery, many former slaves entered into sharecropping arrangements with landowners as a means of earning a livelihood. Under this system, sharecroppers worked on the landowner's farm, cultivating crops and sharing a portion of the harvest as payment for their labor and use of the land. However, sharecropping often led to cycles of debt, exploitation, and poverty for African Americans due to unfair terms, high interest rates, and limited opportunities for advancement.