By the end of the reconstruction era, many americans were forced to use their current year’s profits to pay for last year’s debt. this phenomenon was known as the cycle of
a. bankruptcy
b. debt
c. obligation
d. urbanization

Option b. By the end of the Reconstruction era, many Americans were forced to use their current year's profits to pay for last year's debt. This phenomenon was known as the cycle of debt.

Explanation:

The Reconstruction Era is the name of the period of United States' history after the Civil War ended, that went between the years 1865 until 1877. During this time, the Federal Government implemented different policies in order to deal with the new landscape in the American society, with the newly earned freedom of African Americans. One of the systems implemented was known as sharecropping, in which families would rent a farmer's land and work it, and instead of receiving a wage, they would have to give part of the profit of their labor to the owners by the end of the year. The problem with this system is that the families began to owe more money than the profit they made, as they also had to buy supplies and tools in order to do the work. This situation forced many Americans to use their current year's profits to pay for last year's debt, creating a cycle of debt. And because of this cycle of debt, the families that were a part of the sharecropping system were tied to the landowners for many years.