sena evans
1855-death unknown
Life Story
Formerly Enslaved Woman, Landholder, and Foundational Supporter of Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church
Early Life and Enslavement
Sena Evans, also recorded in historical documents as Senie and Senna Evans, was born about 1855 in Mississippi during the final decade of American slavery. She was the daughter of Kizziah (Kizzie) Evans and is believed to have been the daughter of Ben Evans, both associated with the African American community enslaved by the Evans family in Newton County, Mississippi.
Sena grew up within the plantation community of Watson and Catherine McInnis Evans, whose enslaved population included individuals and families whose names were preserved in the records of Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church. Although the surviving documents reveal little about Sena’s childhood, they establish that she was enslaved by Mrs. Evans and participated in the religious life of Mount Moriah before the Civil War.
Born approximately six years before emancipation, Sena belonged to the generation of African Americans who experienced slavery as children and entered adulthood during Reconstruction. Her later appearances in census and land records reveal a woman whose life became closely associated with African American landownership and the establishment of independent Black religious institutions.
Membership and Baptism at Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church
One of the earliest surviving records identifying Sena individually appears in the session minutes of Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church.
In March 1860, Sena appeared before the church session for examination and admission to membership. The minutes, recorded on page 54, identified her as a servant of Mrs. Evans and stated:
“Sena—a servant of Mrs Evans—appeared and after examination had, was received as a member of this church.”
The entry was recorded by church clerk H. McFarland and appears immediately before the proceedings dated April 22, 1860. Its placement, together with the corresponding baptismal record, indicates that Sena was received into membership during the preceding March session.¹
The church’s baptismal register provides the precise date of her baptism. On March 25, 1860, Sena, identified as a servant of Mrs. Evans, was baptized by the Reverend W. C. Emerson.²
The following month, on April 22, 1860, the same register recorded the baptisms of Becca, Lancy, and Emma, identified as infant servants of Mrs. C. Evans.³ These entries preserve the names of several individuals associated with Catherine Evans’s enslaved community.
Sena’s admission and baptism occurred during a period when enslaved African Americans participated in church life under the supervision of white religious authorities. The records provide evidence of her formal religious participation, although they do not preserve her personal account of the experience.
Her connection to Mount Moriah would later acquire lasting significance. Nearly four decades after her baptism, Sena conveyed land for Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church, an African American congregation whose origins were closely connected to the religious community at Mount Moriah.
Freedom and Family Life
The abolition of slavery in 1865 marked a fundamental change in the legal circumstances of Sena and her family. Like other formerly enslaved African Americans in Newton County, they faced the challenge of establishing independent lives within an agricultural economy still shaped by unequal access to land, credit, education, and political power.
The 1880 United States census provides one of the clearest surviving accounts of Sena’s household after emancipation.
Enumerated as Senie Evans, she was recorded as a twenty-five-year-old Black woman living in Beat 4, Newton County, Mississippi. She resided in dwelling number 524 with her mother, Kizzie Evans, and two other daughters in the household.⁴
The census identified the household as follows:
| Name | Age | Relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Kizzie Evans | 50 | Head of household |
| Senie Evans | 25 | Daughter |
| Laura Evans | 23 | Daughter |
| Emma Evans | 18 | Daughter |
Sena was recorded as unmarried and employed as a farm laborer. The enumerator reported that she could neither read nor write. Her birthplace was Mississippi, while the birthplaces of both parents were recorded as Alabama.
These details place Sena within a family household supported by agricultural labor fifteen years after emancipation. Her occupation reflects the economic circumstances of many formerly enslaved women, whose work remained essential to the survival of their families.
The census does not identify a husband or children for Sena. The surviving records examined for this biography have not established that she subsequently married or became a mother.
The 1876 Evans Family Land Acquisition
On September 20, 1876, Sena Evans participated in a land transaction that became an important part of the history of African American property ownership in the Bethel and Mount Moriah communities.
The deed, recorded in Newton County Deed Book 1, pages 42–43, named Sena Evans, Emanuel Evans, Delany Evans, and Emma Evans as grantees of property in Section 18, Township 5, Range 11 East, Newton County, Mississippi.⁵
The conveyance was executed by members of the white Evans family associated with the estate of Catherine W. Evans, also known as Kate Evans. The deed stated a consideration of $400 and acknowledged that the grantees were already in possession of the property.
This transaction was significant because it documented the acquisition of a legal interest in land by four African Americans who had emerged from slavery little more than a decade earlier.
The deed also provides an important correction to later historical accounts that described the Evans family as having simply given the land to formerly enslaved people at the time of emancipation. The surviving instrument records a transaction dated 1876, identifies the African American grantees, and specifies monetary consideration.
Although the deed does not establish exactly how the consideration was paid or explain the complete circumstances of the family’s earlier possession, it provides documentary evidence of their ownership interests.
For Sena and her siblings, land represented more than a place to live or cultivate crops. In the years following emancipation, ownership could provide a measure of independence, family security, and the opportunity to establish institutions that served the African American community.
Family Landownership and the 1898 Conveyance to Joe Mosley
During the decades following the 1876 transaction, the Evans family continued to hold and manage property in Section 18.
By the late 1890s, marriages, deaths, and inheritance had brought additional family members into transactions involving the original land.
On February 24, 1898, Sena and members of her extended family executed a deed conveying approximately twenty acres to Joe Mosley, the husband of her sister Delany Evans Mosley. The deed, recorded in Newton County Deed Book 14, page 869, stated a consideration of $112.⁶
The grantors included Sena Evans; her sister Delany Evans Mosley; her sister Emma Evans McAdory, who was married to Spencer McAdory; and members of the family of their deceased brother Emanuel Evans.
Emanuel had been one of the four original grantees in the 1876 transaction. By the time of the 1898 conveyance, he had evidently died, as the deed identified his widow, Millie Evans, and their daughters, Norflate Evans and Viney Evans, among the parties transferring an interest in the property.
The appearance of Emanuel’s widow and daughters illustrates how family ownership interests continued through surviving relatives after his death.
The transaction also demonstrates the close relationship between landownership and kinship within the Evans family. Property acquired during Reconstruction remained connected to an extended network of siblings, spouses, and descendants.
For Sena, the 1898 conveyance provides further evidence of her continued involvement in the family’s land affairs more than twenty years after the original acquisition.
Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church and Its Origins
Sena’s most enduring documented contribution to the African American community was her role in securing land for Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church.
The congregation developed from the religious traditions of African Americans who had worshipped in connection with Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church during slavery and the years following emancipation.
A historical newspaper article titled Colored Presbyterian Church reported that Pilgrim Grove Colored Presbyterian Church was organized in 1895 and formally admitted to the Presbytery at Fairview on March 7, 1895.⁷
The article described the congregation’s historical relationship with Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church, where African Americans had attended services during slavery and afterward.
It also identified Senna Evans as the woman who provided the land on which Pilgrim Grove stood, describing her as formerly enslaved by Mrs. Catherine Evans.
This account is particularly important because it connects Sena’s experience of slavery with her later contribution to an African American religious institution.
The newspaper’s description of Catherine Evans emphasized the religious attention she reportedly gave enslaved people. Such language reflected the paternalistic interpretations common in historical accounts written during segregation. The surviving property records, however, establish the direct role of Sena and her family in acquiring and conveying land after emancipation.
Sena Evans’s 1898 Land Conveyance to Pilgrim Grove
On June 23, 1898, Sena Evans executed a deed conveying one acre of land to the trustees of Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church for the nominal consideration of one dollar.⁸
The deed, recorded in Newton County Deed Book 18, page 266, described the property as one acre situated in the southeast corner of the southeast quarter of Section 18, Township 5, Range 11 East, Newton County, Mississippi.
The document identified Sena Evans as the grantor and the trustees of Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church as the recipients.
This transaction established Sena’s direct role in securing land for the congregation.
Her conveyance was significant not only because it provided property for a church, but also because it represented the use of African American-owned land for a lasting community purpose.
For formerly enslaved families, the establishment of independent churches was an important expression of religious organization and community identity. These congregations provided places for worship, fellowship, leadership, and the preservation of family and community traditions.
Sena’s deed helped give Pilgrim Grove a permanent location within the landscape where members of the African American community had lived and labored for generations.
The church land also represented a connection between the struggles of Reconstruction and the development of Black institutions at the end of the nineteenth century.
Sena, who had been baptized at Mount Moriah while enslaved in 1860, was now a landholder conveying property for the benefit of an African American Presbyterian congregation.
Historical Recognition of Sena’s Contribution
Later newspaper accounts preserved the history of Pilgrim Grove and its connection to the Evans family.
The article titled Colored Presbyterian Church specifically credited Senna Evans with providing the land on which the congregation’s church stood. It also reported that services had continued in an older church building while a newer structure was being constructed.⁷
Another historical article, discussing the rebuilding of the Black Presbyterian church at Mount Moriah, credited the Evans family with providing land for the original church and described the newer concrete-block building as occupying the historic site.⁹
The language of this second account emphasized white assistance and portrayed the church’s history as evidence of the benevolence of white Presbyterians toward formerly enslaved African Americans.
Such interpretations must be considered within the racial and social context in which they were written.
The surviving deeds provide a more detailed understanding of the land’s history.
In 1876, Sena and her siblings acquired a documented property interest through a conveyance stating monetary consideration. In 1898, Sena herself conveyed one acre to the trustees of Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church.
These records establish that African American landownership and community initiative were central to the church’s development.
The distinction is historically important. Pilgrim Grove’s establishment was not simply the result of assistance from former enslavers. It was also supported by the deliberate actions of formerly enslaved African Americans who acquired land and used it to provide for their community.
Later Life
The surviving records presently available provide limited information about Sena’s life after the turn of the twentieth century.
Her 1880 census entry identified her as unmarried, and the deeds of 1876 and 1898 establish her participation in landownership and property transfers. The June 1898 church deed is among the latest securely identified records of her individual activities.
Her death and burial place have not been established.
Legacy
Sena Evans’s surviving history illustrates the experiences of African American women whose lives extended from slavery into the development of independent Black communities in Newton County, Mississippi.
Born about 1855, she was baptized and received into membership at Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church in March 1860 while enslaved by Mrs. Evans.
Following emancipation, she appeared in the records as a daughter in Kizziah Evans’s household and as a participant in the acquisition and management of family land.
The 1876 deed placed Sena among the African Americans who established documented property interests during Reconstruction. Her continued involvement in land transactions during the 1890s demonstrated the importance of that property to the extended Evans family.
Her most lasting contribution came on June 23, 1898, when she conveyed one acre to the trustees of Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church.
That act helped secure a permanent place for an African American congregation whose religious roots extended back to the years of slavery.
Although many details of Sena’s personal life remain undocumented, the surviving church minutes, census records, deeds, and newspaper accounts preserve her name and establish her importance in the history of the Bethel and Mount Moriah communities.
Sena Evans’s legacy rests in the land she helped acquire, the church she helped establish, and the enduring contribution she made to the religious and community life of African Americans in Newton County, Mississippi.
Chicago-Style Footnotes
- Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church (Newton County, Mississippi), session minutes, 54, entry recording the examination and reception into membership of Sena, identified as a servant of Mrs. Evans, immediately preceding the April 22, 1860, session; microfilm roll 36108, Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH), Jackson.
- Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church (Newton County, Mississippi), baptismal records, 194, March 25, 1860, baptism of Sena, servant of Mrs. Evans, by Rev. W. C. Emerson; microfilm roll 36108, Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH), Jackson.
- Mount Moriah Presbyterian Church (Newton County, Mississippi), baptismal records, 194, April 22, 1860, baptisms of Becca, Lancy, and Emma, identified as infant servants of Mrs. C. Evans; microfilm roll 36108, Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH), Jackson.
- 1880 U.S. census, Newton County, Mississippi, Beat 4, dwelling 524, household of Kizzie Evans, including Senie Evans, age 25, daughter, single, farm laborer; digital image, Ancestry.com, 1880 United States Federal Census (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6742/ : accessed November 2, 2026).
- Newton County, Mississippi, Chancery Clerk, Deed Book 1, 42–43, September 20, 1876, conveyance involving Sena Evans, Emanuel Evans, Delany Evans, and Emma Evans.
- Newton County, Mississippi, Chancery Clerk, Deed Book 14, 869, February 24, 1898, conveyance to Joe Mosley involving Sena Evans, Delany Evans Mosley, Emma Evans McAdory, Millie Evans, Norflate Evans, and Viney Evans.
- “Colored Presbyterian Church, “Newton Record newspaper clipping describing the organization of Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church in 1895 and identifying Senna Evans as the donor of the church land. “Colored Presbyterian Church,” The Newton Record (Newton, Mississippi), April 7, 1955, 1.
- Newton County, Mississippi, Chancery Clerk, Deed Book 18, 266, June 23, 1898, Sena Evans to the trustees of Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church, one acre in Section 18, Township 5, Range 11 East; recorded December 1899.
- “The Rebuilding of the Historic Negro Presbyterian Church at Mt. Moriah,” Newton Record newspaper clipping discussing Pilgrim Grove Presbyterian Church, its earlier building, and the history of the church land. “The Rebuilding of the Historic Negro Presbyterian Church at Mt. Moriah,” The Newton Record (Newton, Mississippi), June 27, 1957, 2.
Resting Place
Unknown
Photos/Albums
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