My family moved to a small farm in about 1720. Middle Georgia. Never owned slaves. In 1865 Stoneman's cavalry snatched my 5-year old great grandfather off of the family's only horse, took it and burned the crops. Scallywag government took over and with no horse and no crops, family was not able to make the tax assessment and lost the farm. My grandfather grew up as a sharecropper. One 900 pound bale of cotton paid the annual rent.
Not much different that the corporatists today.