Under Both Flags: Civil War in the Albemarle

• Home
• Virtual Exhibit Home
• Character Index
• Back to Related Characters
• Back to A Soldier's Life
• Proceed to 1863

In 1814, sixteen-year old Lovey Taylor married Thomas Pool, a shipping businessman and estate caretaker. Her sister, Nancy, was married to Thomas’ brother, Jesse, and died just after giving birth to a daughter named Mary Jane, who was left in the care of Thomas and Lovey.  Upon her husband’s death on August 22, 1838, Lovey Pool inherited Thomas Pool’s shipyard and his thirty enslaved laborers.  After Mary Jane Pool married William W. Kennedy, a Virginian minister, he took over management of the family’s shipping concerns.  Kennedy continued to run the business after Mary Jane Kennedy’s death in February 1856.  According to the 1860 Census, Lovey Pool owned over $27,000 in property, including thirteen slaves.  Like the majority of Elizabeth City’s upper-class elite, the Pools and the Kennedys fled to the safety of Perquimans County during Union occupation of the town in 1862.  As guerrilla violence escalated, Lovey Pool and her grand-niece, Sarah Kennedy, sought safety behind Union lines in Norfolk.  Lovey Taylor Pool died there on April 6, 1866.
Her home still stands in downtown Elizabeth City.

Home | Virtual Exhibit | Character Index | Artifact Index | Acknowledgments

©2011 Museum of the Albemarle