Bettie Alexander Taliaferro / Tolliver

Bettie Alexander Taliaferro, later recorded as Tolliver, was born about 1837 based on ages reported for her in the 1870 and 1880 federal censuses. No record entered in this archive names her before 1870; the records made during her enslavement counted people without naming them. She appears by name in the Copiah County, Mississippi household recorded with Hilliard in 1870, and again in 1880 at Rose Hill Precinct in the same county, aged 44, working as a farm hand, with five children and two grandsons in the house. A citation carried into this archive placed that 1880 household in Union County, Kentucky; the page itself reads Copiah County, Mississippi, and the Kentucky reading has been withdrawn. Her parentage, the origin of the name Alexander, and the date and place of her death remain open research questions.

1. Were Hilliard and Bettie living together by 1870?

   Documented

   Co-residence in 1870 is documented. Co-residence alone does not establish a legal marriage.

   BT-CLM-00168 · High confidence

2. Hilliard and Bettie were living in Union County, Kentucky by 1880.

   Documented

   Mississippi and Kentucky are both documented as places of residence. The route and timing between them are not documented.

   BT-CLM-00169 · High confidence

• The eighty-acre place

  “John and Laura acquired approximately eighty acres, with a house, barns, livestock, a blacksmith shop, wells, orchards, pastures, streams, gardens, trees, and poultry.”

  Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · BT-TRD-00097

• Laura attended "Vicksburg College"

  “Laura Tolliver, while yet a student of Vicksburg College, was given in marriage to John Smith, a country farmer.”

  Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · BT-TRD-00098

• Bishop C. H. Mason in the Smith home

  “Around 1897 John and Laura Smith welcomed Bishop C. H. Mason into their home, extended an ongoing invitation for him to stay when in the area, their son Joe cared for his horse and buggy, and their oldest grandson Mason Harrison Smith was named for him.”

  Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · BT-TRD-00099

• The five-year separation

  “Hilliard was sold to another enslaver in Arkansas and separated from Bettie. Bettie's grief was so constant that her enslavers purchased Hilliard back, ending a separation the family remembers as lasting about five years.”

  Earliest known teller: Alma Smith Spearman · BT-TRD-00195

• Choctaw ancestry in Bettie's line

  “Family memory identifies Choctaw ancestry in the ancestry of Bettie Alexander Taliaferro, born about 1837.”

  Earliest known teller: Not recorded · BT-TRD-00604

• Shawnee ancestry in Hilliard's line

  “Family memory identifies Shawnee ancestry in the ancestry of Hilliard Taliaferro, born about 1823 in Virginia.”

  Earliest known teller: Not recorded · BT-TRD-00605

• Can the reported separation of Hilliard and Bettie after Hilliard was sold away be documented?

  Family Tradition

  Can the reported separation of Hilliard and Bettie after Hilliard was sold away be documented?

• Why was Bettie known as "Alexander"?

  Under Investigation

  Why was Bettie known as "Alexander"?

• Who were Bettie's parents?

  Under Investigation

  Who were Bettie's parents?

• Did Bettie and a grandson named Joelie later live with John and Laura Tolliver Smith?

  Family Tradition

  Does a census, church, or school record place Bettie and a grandson named Joelie in the Smith household?

• Was Hilliard separated from Bettie after a sale?

  Under Investigation

  What record documents a separation of Hilliard from Bettie following a sale?

• Did the separation last approximately five years?

  Under Investigation

  What records would fix the start and end of any separation?

• Did Bettie's enslavers repurchase Hilliard?

  Under Investigation

  Does a bill of sale, note, or estate account record a later purchase of Hilliard?

• Was any repurchase motivated by Bettie's grief?

  Under Investigation

  Is there correspondence, testimony, or a contemporaneous account that speaks to motive?

• · Trace the 1856 purchaser, search Arkansas county records for 1856–1865, and look for any later purchase record returning Hilliard to Bettie's enslavers.

1. 1870 U.S. Census — Copiah County, Mississippi

   United States Bureau of the Census · FamilySearch / National Archives and Records Administration · U.S. census, Copiah County, Mississippi, population schedule, Townships 9 & 10 (Post Office Hazlehurst) · Digital Image

   Digital image of original record · Original image: Citation entered — image review pending · BT-SRC-00036

2. 1880 U.S. Census — Rose Hill Precinct, Copiah County, Mississippi

   United States Bureau of the Census · FamilySearch / National Archives and Records Administration · 1880 U.S. census population schedules (NARA T9, roll 645) · Digital Image

   Digital image of original record · Original image: Citation entered — image review pending · BT-SRC-00037

3. 1860 U.S. Census Slave Schedule — H. G. D. Brown Household, Copiah County, Mississippi

   United States Bureau of the Census · FamilySearch · U.S. census, Copiah County, Mississippi, slave schedule · Digital Image

   Digital image of original record · Original image: Citation entered — image review pending · BT-SRC-00034

4. Register of Formerly Enslaved People — H. G. D. Brown / Lucky Hit Plantation

   Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands · FamilySearch / National Archives and Records Administration · Mississippi, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872 · Digital Image

   Digital image of original record · Original image: Citation entered — image review pending · BT-SRC-00035

5. 1880 U.S. Census — Rose Hill Precinct, Copiah County, Mississippi (Taliaferro household, p. 24)

   H. H. Barlow, enumerator · FamilySearch / National Archives and Records Administration · United States Census, 1880 · Digital Image

   Digital image of original record · Original image: Citation entered — image review pending · BT-SRC-00455

6. William Q. Taliaferro Estate Final Administrator's Settlement (records the 1856 sale of Hilliard)

   Copiah County, Mississippi, County Court · FamilySearch (digital images of county court records) · Copiah County, Mississippi, County Court probate records · Digital Image

   Digital image of original record · Original image: Citation entered — image review pending · BT-SRC-00118

7. Bibliographic details pending — family history by Alma Smith Spearman

   Alma Smith Spearman · Authored Narrative

   Authored family history · Original image: Publication details pending · BT-SRC-00040

11 discrete observations were extracted from these sources for this case.