by AUDREY CREEL / November 13, 2020
©Audrey Creel, 2020 (All rights reserved.)

Betsy would have been approximately forty-five at the end of the Civil War.[iii] It is supposed that Betsy married Dempsey Maney, but there are no surviving marriage documents for Dempsey and Betsy Maney. It is also possible that the two never legally married. In 1870, Betsy and Dempsey were living in the same household with four children: Eli, Ellen, Jo, and Matilda Maney.[iv] Betsy and Dempsey’s finances did not allow Betsy to stay at home with her children, and Betsy found work as a farm laborer following the Civil War.[v] It is uncertain what happened to Betsy after 1870.

Betsy Maney was born in Virginia in approximately 1820.[i] It is uncertain how or when Betsy arrived in Murfreesboro. In 1860, David D. Maney, owner of a plantation behind Oaklands Mansion, owned a forty year old woman and children who are approximately the same age as the children living with Betsy in 1870.[ii] It is possible that this is the same family, but it is unknown exactly who enslaved Betsy and her family.

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References

[i] United States Census, “Maney, Betsy,” 1870 United States Census, 1870, accessed October 23, 2020 from ancestry.com database, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4275524_00217?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.140146800.2111514632.1603413495-1700215809.1599080803&pId=14338229.

[ii] United States Census, “Maney, D.D.,” 1860 United States Census – Slave Schedule, 1860, accessed October 23, 2020 from familysearch.org database, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSD-FR2?cc=3161105&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AWKT5-VW6Z. 

[iii] United States Census, “Maney, Betsy,” 1870 United States Census.  

[iv] United States Census, “Maney, Betsy,” 1870 United States Census.  

[v] United States Census, “Maney, Betsy,” 1870 United States Census.