Biography
Hannah Toliver was a free Black woman arrested in 1864 for violating Kentucky's law against "enticing a slave," for aiding the escape of an enslaved man held by William Murphy of Kentucky. Tried and found guilty, she was sentenced to seven years in prison; she served seven months and eighteen days before being pardoned by Governor Thomas Bramlette. Her case shows the Underground Railroad still operating during the Civil War — the Emancipation Proclamation had not freed the enslaved in Union-loyal Kentucky.
In a December 27, 1864 petition, Peter B. Muir asked Governor Thomas E. Bramlette to pardon Hannah Tolliver, describing her as a free woman convicted of aiding an enslaved person’s escape. The Kentucky Historical Society transcription records an endorsement granting a pardon in January 1865; part of the day is illegible. The pardon endorsement establishes an act of clemency, not by itself the day she physically left prison. Original petition and endorsement, CWGK KYR-0001-004-1374.
The Indiana Historical Bureau’s annotated marker research identifies Hannah Toliver’s birth surname as Coleman and places her birth between 1826 and 1835, noting inconsistent ages across the 1850, 1860 and 1870 censuses. These records do not establish an exact birthday. The Bureau separately cites a pardon dated January 5, 1865 in Governor Thomas Bramlette’s papers; that is a clemency date, not independent proof of physical release that day. Official marker research and numbered archival references.
