The southeast Arkansas planters tried several avenues to maintain cotton production despite emancipation. The system of sharecropping eventually became most popular, allowing individuals to use farmland, seed, tools and a dwelling provided by the landowner. At season end he received a share of the crop (which in turn was used to pay off local merchants who had provided credit for living expenses.) The duty of supervising these contracts between newly freed slaves and planters was the responsibility of the federal Freedman's Bureau. Many plantation owners despised paying the same slaves that had run off from their plantation years earlier. Blacks began using their own schools and churches for the first time. Following the frustrations of losing the war and slavery, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) became the military arm of the Democratic party in much of the south, including Arkansas. Tasked with keeping blacks as well as white Republicans on plantations and away from the polls, the KKK and other groups like the Bald Knobbers reigned terror throughout the state for years.