Qualls Tolliver (as remembered)

The name Lucretia Alexander gave for her mother's first enslaver, a man she said later moved to Mississippi. The archive has not identified him in any contemporary record. Whether the name is an oral rendering of Quarles Taliaferro is a research hypothesis, not a finding.

No claim in this case has reached documented status.

• 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

No open question is currently recorded.

1. Voices From Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives, ed. Norman R. Yetman — narrative of Lucretia Alexander, age 89

   Norman R. Yetman (editor); testimony of Lucretia Alexander · Published edition (Yetman, Voices From Slavery) · Voices From Slavery: 100 Authentic Slave Narratives · Authored Narrative

   Authored family history · Original image: Publication details pending · BT-SRC-00610

2. 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

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