384 Formerly Enslaved of William Lovett Balfour (1802-1857) & Family

Sharing a decade’s worth of research into 384 of the formerly enslaved of the Balfour family of North Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

In 2005, I (along with my awesome research team) began researching the origins of William Lovett Balfour (March 25, 1802-May 8, 1857) as a potential slaveholder of my Atlas line. In the time since, we confirmed that Balfour was NOT slaveholder of the King Atlas, Sr., his wife Rachel Day, and their children John, King Jr., William Steven, Andrew and Mary. Despite this, we gathered A LOT of info on this family and their enslaved. To date, we have gathered information on 384 individuals who were formerly enslaved by Balfour and his family.

At the time of his death in 1857, Balfour’s estate in just East Carroll Parish was worth $181,000 which, adjusted for inflation, is upwards of $4.7 million today.

Information was gathered from the following records:

The Balfour family held the formerly enslaved and/or had plantations in the following locations:

  • Edgecombe County, North Carolina
  • Carroll Parish, Louisiana
  • Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
  • Bolivar County, Mississippi
  • Coahoma County, Mississippi
  • Claiborne County, Mississippi
  • Madison County, Mississippi
  • Marshall County, Mississippi
  • Yazoo County, Mississippi

There was no use in keeping the information for these folks on a hard drive. I KNOW there will be someone who is so close to getting the info they need on their ancestors and it may be in my hands. The table below is sortable, searchable, and can show up to 100 rows at a time.

If you have questions regarding any of the notations, holler at me below. Also, if you think you’re connected to this family through slavery or perhaps through DNA, I’d also love to hear from you. Remember, I’ve been tracing them for over a decade, so I have A LOT more than this. Cheers to some new finds!

Attention: The internal data of table “1” is corrupted!

Facebook Comments

5 thoughts on “384 Formerly Enslaved of William Lovett Balfour (1802-1857) & Family”

  1. Beverly A Harper

    You hit my neck of the woods in Research this time Ms. Nicka what a treasure for us researcher of course I am sharing , Thanks A Bunch

  2. Nicka, you are to be commended and lifted for this bountiful work Ancestrally commissioned – the works of a tenacious Markswoman, an invaluable credit to the field and fellow Family Historians aligned. #RiteOn

  3. Victoria K. Y.

    Thanks for this! John Henry might be my relative. Where did you find the story he poisoned William Turner’s three kids?

    1. Nicka Sewell-Smith

      Hi Victoria. That story came from documents within the Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations. You can now access them through FamilySearch for free.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top