In 1853, she married Joseph Alexander Humphreys, of Kentucky. He died February 15, 1863, leaving her with a family of little children to bring up and a large estate to manage unaided. After the children got older and she was relieved of some financial responsibilities, Humphreys was able to follow her inclination in literary pursuits and the cause of the emancipation of woman. Her first literary work was a novel, which she wrote when only 13, and which was never published. For at least 10 years, she contributed stories, essays, letters, and sketches to various magazines and papers, always over a pen name. One of her contributions to Bedford's Magazine was the "Negro Libertines in the South."
