Biographical Info

When asked for personal information for the 1870 U.S. Census, Levin reported that he had been born in Maryland in 1785. He first appears in historical record, however, in Zachariah’s 1832 will, when he, his wife Nancy, and their children were bequeathed to Mary Ann. Levin and Nancy, along with their children Nelly, Elizabeth, Delia, and Sam, labored at the Hurricane plantation. When General Sherman’s army threatened arrival in Milledgeville, the Cobb-Lamars arranged to relocate the Hurricane’s enslaved labor force to Sumter County. After dispatching the bulk of the enslaved workforce to Sumter as planned, the overseer delayed in sending off Levin and several of the other older people. Sherman’s forces arrived before he could complete the evacuation. Levin and the others who were left behind witnessed the burning of the plantation house and barns. The Union forces spared the houses of the enslaved and Levin continued to live at the Hurricane through at least 1865. By 1870, Levin had taken the last name Cobb and was still living in Baldwin County beside others with whom he was enslaved at the Hurricane.

Sketch written by Carlo Fernandez, Antonio Gomez Jr., Jack Hamm, Steven Jones Jr.