Nancy, Marshall & Zachariah Jones
A freed family of the Alexander P. Jones plantation: Nancy’s 1876 deposition describes farming eighty acres of corn after emancipation; her husband Marshall was the plantation’s “head man”; their likely son Zachariah was denied his federal claim because slavery had denied him literacy.
Nancy Jones — the deposition
Nancy Jones (Colored) of Madison County filed Southern Claims Commission Claim No. 2753 — the federal body that compensated Southern Unionists for property taken by the Union army — and gave her deposition on February 18, 1876. Documented In her own words, she was enslaved when the war began, was told she was free by Yankee soldiers, and after emancipation farmed some eighty acres of corn on Alex Jones’s land with her husband Marshall Jones, their children, and a plow hand. Documented She claimed $582 for her property: five hundred bushels of corn, seventeen stock hogs, three pork hogs, one milch cow, two oxen, and one black mare. The Commission allowed $102 and disallowed $480 — eighty-two and a half percent of what a Black woman said she owned, erased on the presumption that enslaved people could not have owned crops. Documented
One record names Nancy’s enslaver as Alexander P. Jones — the Madison County planter enumerated with ninety-six enslaved people in 1860. Documented Another record, in the same project database, says she was “formerly enslaved by ‘one True.’” Documented The claim file has not yet been read firsthand to resolve it — possibly two different Nancys, possibly sequential enslavers — so this page does not choose. Under investigation Her husband Marshall’s deposition, given July 8, 1876, confirms her account, and a white neighbor, John A. Hilliard, witnessed for her. Documented
Marshall Jones — the head man
Marshall Jones is described as the “head man” on Alexander P. Jones’s plantation — the management layer of the plantation, seen from the enslaved side. Documented He was about forty-six in 1870. In his deposition of July 8, 1876, given in support of Nancy’s claim, he said Alex Jones told him early in the war that he was free, and that after emancipation he farmed the “East Place” — the 1866 estate account credits him $170. Documented A named Black plantation foreman, speaking on the federal record, about the land he worked and the money it owed him. Documented
Zachariah Jones — denied for what slavery denied him
Zachariah Jones, a “colored man” of Huntsville, filed Southern Claims Commission Claim No. 2273 on June 13, 1871, seeking $365: a black mule taken in April 1864 by General Wilder’s men, three hundred pounds of beef and a bay horse taken in August 1864, and a chestnut sorrel horse taken in January or February 1865 by General Thomas’s men. Documented He received no vouchers for the property — because, denied education under slavery, he did not know that written instruments would matter. The claim was barred and disallowed: the legal system penalizing a man for the consequences of the slavery it had just abolished, in his own stated words. Documented His witnesses were Joseph Ward, Calet Jones, and A. Rice Jones. Documented
The database records him as Nancy and Marshall’s son — but one of the database’s own entries flags that kinship as an open question, and the claim file has not been read firsthand. Under investigation This page calls him their likely son and no more. He also appears as a witness in Nancy’s claim. Documented His birth year does not sit still: about twenty-five or twenty-six when he filed in 1871 puts his birth around 1845–46, while a separate 1870 hypothesis puts him at nineteen or twenty, born around 1850–51. The record does not agree with itself, and this page does not force it to. Under investigation He married Eliza Wallace on May 11, 1876, in the Madison County marriage index. Documented
Records
Union troops take Zachariah’s property Documented
A black mule, three hundred pounds of beef, a bay horse, and a chestnut sorrel horse — taken by the commands of Generals Wilder and Thomas. He kept no written proof, because slavery had kept him from learning to read and write.
Marshall Jones in the Alexander P. Jones estate account Documented
Credited $170 for farming the “East Place” — a Black foreman’s labor, priced in the planter’s books the year after emancipation.
Zachariah files SCC Claim No. 2273 Documented
Seeks $365 for the mule, beef, and horses. Barred and disallowed.
Nancy’s deposition, SCC Claim No. 2753 Documented
In her own words: enslaved at the war’s start, freed by Yankee soldiers, farming eighty acres of corn afterward with Marshall, their children, and a plow hand. Claims $582; allowed $102, disallowed $480.
Zachariah Jones marries Eliza Wallace Documented
Madison County marriage index — the Black asterisk beside the entry.
Marshall’s deposition Documented
Confirms Nancy’s account: told early in the war by Alex Jones that he was free; farmed the East Place after.
Kinship
Nancy Jones
SCC claimant; farmed eighty acres of corn after emancipation. Who enslaved her — Alexander P. Jones or “one True” — is an open conflict between the records. Under investigation
Marshall Jones
“Head man” on the APJ plantation; his 1876 deposition backs Nancy’s claim. Documented
Zachariah Jones
Recorded as Nancy and Marshall’s son, but the database itself flags the kinship as a question. He is also a witness in Nancy’s claim. Under investigation
Zachariah H. Jones
A different Zachariah Jones with a different profile appears in the Bedford County records — a different man, kept firewalled. Documented
Places
What the record doesn’t say
The silence ledger for Nancy, Marshall & Zachariah Jones
- Two records name two different enslavers for Nancy — Alexander P. Jones and “one True.” Until the claim file is read firsthand, neither is stated as fact on this page.
- Whether Zachariah is Nancy and Marshall’s son is recorded as fact in one database entry and flagged as a question in another. The kinship stays likely, not certain.
- Zachariah’s birth year wobbles by five years between records. No birth record names him.
- Nancy’s full claim file — the commissioners’ summary and remarks have been read at working resolution, but the complete file may name more family, more property, and more of what was taken.
- No record in this project yet follows this family past 1876. Where they went, and what became of the eighty acres, is the next search.
Sources
- Southern Claims Commission, Claim No. 2753 (Nancy Jones, Madison County, AL) — deposition February 18, 1876; husband Marshall Jones’s deposition July 8, 1876; witness John A. Hilliard; commissioners’ summary and remarks. Approved-index companion entry No. 51261 (M2062).
- Southern Claims Commission, Claim No. 2273 (Zachariah Jones, Huntsville, AL; filed June 13, 1871) — barred and disallowed; witnesses Joseph Ward, Calet Jones, A. Rice Jones.
- Alexander P. Jones estate account, 1866 — Marshall Jones, “East Place,” $170.
- Madison County marriage index — JONES, ZACHARIAH* – WALLACE, ELIZA, May 11, 1876.