Martha Frazier
Despite never going to school and overcoming the challenges of an oppressive society, Martha Frazier learned to read and write later in her life. Martha Frazier was born to Mahalia and Ben Frazier in 1889 most likely in Russel County or Pike County, Alabama. Her entire family were laborers on the fields and were likely sharecroppers. Sharecropping was where a farmer or landowner allowed a person to use that land to farm it, where they got a certain share of crops, but were controlled by the debt they owed. The landowner would provide all the food, equipment, clothing for the tenet. Owners usually bound these people to the land by unfair contracts where sharecroppers get half of the crop even if they were able to pay back the owner. The contracts were very unfair and harsh leading these tenants to be enslaved to their debt.
According to census records when she was 10, Martha most likely did not attend school, as she worked as a sharecropper. Jim Crow Laws also prevented African Americans like Martha from attaining good jobs. Jim Crow Laws were discriminatory laws introduced in the post-Civil War South allowing racism in many aspects. She had at least nine siblings which some of them were Mariah, Isaac, Bessie, Victory, George, and Larry. In the course of her life, she seemed to be in and out of marriages. We can assume that she did not attend college. This was probably because there were little colleges that allowed Black people to enroll and because she came from a poor family. Unfortunately, much of life after marriage till her death is unknown, where she was buried in Baptist Hill cemetery in 1971.
According to census records when she was 10, Martha most likely did not attend school, as she worked as a sharecropper. Jim Crow Laws also prevented African Americans like Martha from attaining good jobs. Jim Crow Laws were discriminatory laws introduced in the post-Civil War South allowing racism in many aspects. She had at least nine siblings which some of them were Mariah, Isaac, Bessie, Victory, George, and Larry. In the course of her life, she seemed to be in and out of marriages. We can assume that she did not attend college. This was probably because there were little colleges that allowed Black people to enroll and because she came from a poor family. Unfortunately, much of life after marriage till her death is unknown, where she was buried in Baptist Hill cemetery in 1971.
Contributed by Sasha and Sam from Auburn High School