This record features a comprehensive list of the identified free blacks living in Talladega County, Alabama, in 1850. The 1850 census incorporated free blacks into the standard census records, while enslaved individuals were accounted for in a separate slave census. Out of the 23 million individuals counted across the United States during the 1850 census, a mere 500,000 were recognized as free blacks.
One of the oldest of the Upper Creek towns. – While there is some uncertainty, it is believed that the site of the town was in Talladega County, near the Coosa River, and just South of Tallassehatchee Creek on the S. 1/2 of the S. 1/2 of sec. 17, T. 20, R. 5 E. of the Huntsville meridian. At this point a village site, not otherwise identified, but corresponding with the indications of map locations of Abihka, extends along the creek same distance down the river. Lewis thus describes this site: “The remains—village debris—are of about the same general character …
William D. Smith, a prominent business man and planter of Autauga county, Alabama, was born in Jones county, Georgia, January 26, 1809. His parents, John Scott and Sarah (Bush) Smith, were also natives of Georgia, where they were married, and whence they came in 1818 to Alabama, and located in Autauga county, being among the pioneer settlers, and improved a farm on Nolan’s creek. The family subsequently removed to Talladega county, and later to Jefferson county, where Mr. Smith ended his days. Mrs. Smith passed away in Autauga county, a member of the Baptist church. Levi Bush, the maternal grandfather …