User:Chloe Stone/sandbox

Nelly Hargrave was an African American woman born in Mt. Carmel, North Carolina. Her parents were Dock Maddrey and Sarah Rochelle. When she was younger, her family did not have much but they were farmers and owned some land. Hargrave had six siblings. She lived on her parents’ farm until she was married to Henry Hargraves and in 1939 was living in Margarettsville, NC. Nelly and Henry had three children; Frances, Lillian, and Stanley. After a year of working on her parents’ farm, they moved to a nearby farm and became sharecroppers, like many African Americans were at the time. They moved around often as they ended up sharecropping for a few different men as follows: Jasper Gray, Grover White, Daniel Taylor, Henry Davis, and Romie Gay. Most of the men they sharecropped for were decent, however, the men also were strict on working in the fields even if it was not needed. They were forced out of their home on Mr. Gay’s farm when Hargrave’s husband Henry fell ill with rheumatism. Then, Nelly’s younger brother opened up his home to them and their children. Nelly’s younger brother Herman was a sharecropper for a Mr. Barrett and when Henry recovered from his rheumatism he helped Herman out on the farm. The family hoped to move out one day to farm their own land.