Figure 1.-- Here we see Italian share cropping children. The photo here was taken near the village of San Cataldo, southern Italy, in 1956. |
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taly was a basically agricultural country as late as World War II. There was some industrial development n the north, but the south was mostly agrarian. Italian boys as a result were commonly involved in low-paying agricultural labor. This often involved work on large estates in near feudal conditions. There was also share cropping, but it was not as commo. In many other instances children worked on small family farms. Our informtion on this agricultural work is limited at this time. We note Italian boys involved in agricultural work well into the 20th century, even after World War II.
The Italian term for sharecropping is "mezzadria". The contract involved the whole family. The crop was shared between the family and the estate owner, traditionally fifty-fifty.
The Italian agrarian reform (1950s) enabled many sharecroppers to change their condition. In 1964 an Italian law forbad to draw up new sharecropping contracts.
However in the Italian countries, especially in the South, there are many people that lived in a worse condition: the daily laborers. They were paid only in the working days. Many especially after World War II migrated to the northern Italy cies to find jobs in industry. Other found work in northern European Countries. The photo here was taken near the village of San Cataldo, southern Italy, in 1956 (figure 1).
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