David Stevens

“When I first heard of the war I was on the Yankee side…I was on the side of course the side of the United States there was no other way for me.” 

David Stephens (also spelled Stevens) had been the enslaved “driver,” or foreman, for Captain Abial Winn for about 9 years when he was made free by the arrival of U.S. soldiers in Liberty County in December 1864. The soldiers took his horses, wagons, cows, hogs, rice, and corn, and when he protested, Union Captain Gilmore told him that he would get it back. Stephens sued the U.S. Government for compensation in 1873 under the Southern Claims Commission act and did get paid $243 for his loss.

For a full transcript of this claim, see: https://theyhadnames.net/2020/10/03/david-stevens-southern-claims-commission/

Stephens, who said he was 50 in 1873 when he testified, said that “when I first heard of the war I was on the Yankee side…I was on the side of course the side of the United States there was no other way for me.” He said that he used to say that when the Yankees came, of course he would join them, and that when they did come, he carried things back and forth for them to their camp at Midway Church. Since the war, he said, he was farming on Winn’s land, which he rented and gave Winn a third of the crop. He owed Winn nothing, he added.

The Winn family all lived in “the same settlement” about 3 miles from Midway Church, Stephens said, within 1.5 to 3 miles apart, and were all planters and slave owners. He named Abial Winn, Washington Winn, Lawrence Winn, and James Winn, and said Abial Winn had owned “about 20 to 30 hands and a 100 big and little.” When the soldiers arrived in December 1864, he said, there were other enslaved people present near his house: Peter Winn, Prince Ripley, and Albert Wilson.

Peter Winn testified for Stephens about his property being taken. He said he had been born into slavery on Captain Winn’s place, and was about 30 years old in 1873. He said he was now farming, but used to be a carpenter, and that he was not related to Stephens. Winn said that he and Stephens used to talk about the war a good deal and had wished for the Yankees to come. “I felt bad when they first came and took my property but when I found they gave me my time I felt prime – proud and as if I could do anything in the world for the Yankees.” In addition to the others present when the property was taken, he said that his brother Toby Pinckney was there.

Prince Ripley also testified that he was born into slavery in Liberty County, that Captain Winn had been his owner, and that he was, he thought, over 50 years old in 1873. He said he was not related to Stephens. Ripley said that Winn had had 16 slave houses and from one to two families in a house.

Albert Wilson testified that he was born into slavery in Liberty County and that he had belonged to John S. Andrews. He said that in 1873 he was 33 years old and was living on Mr. Cay’s property in Liberty County, farming. He said that he was David Stephens’ son-in-law.

The Southern Claims Commission usually put more weight on the testimony of white witnesses, and David Stephens got William M. Winn, Abial Winn’s son, to testify for him. Winn, who said he was 30 in 1873, said that Stephens had been a foreman on his father’s place for 7-9 years. He backed up Stephens’ claim to have owned horses, saying that the mare taken from him was “one of the finest in the county…I mean the horse was one of the finest of those owned by the negroes.” He said he did not see the property taken. Winn described Stephens as an “industrious hard working man” and a “great hand at” at raising hogs, and said that he always raised a lot of them and sold them to Abial Winn every winter. He noted that the foreman “had advantages in some respects and in others not for he had no task work and had no time of his own while the other slaves had the evenings to themselves.”

Another white witness, Dr. Edward J. Delegal, was asked to testify by the Commission’s special agent in 1876, after Abial Winn had died. Delegal was frequently consulted by the special agent in these claims. He said he knew Stephens had been allowed to own property and he estimated the value of each item of property Stephens had listed in his claim. The Commissioners cited these values — not the higher values Stephens gave — when deciding how much to award Stephens.