Charles McGruder Sr. was born to Ned and Mariah Magruder as a slave in North Carolina in about 1829.
[1] Charles' owners used him as a stud, a human breeder, in order to increase their slave population.
[2] Charles ultimately became the father to some one-hundred children and is today the progenitor of thousands of people and hundreds of African-American men with the surname McGruder or Magruder.
[citation needed] After the emancipation proclamation of 1865, his descendants, most of whom spelled their surname McGruder, settled in Hale and Greene Counties Alabama.
[3][failed verification] DNA testing conducted by J.R. Rothstein, the author of the Alabama Black McGruders, on male descendants of Charles McGruder confirm that he is a direct descendant of Alexander Magruder (1610–1677).