Amanda Dickinson (maiden name: Stanley) was born around 1834 in South Carolina. By 1850, she was living with her brother Matthew in Darlington District, South Carolina. She married Robert Dickinson sometime in the 1850s, and they had at least eight children: Mary, born around 1854; Eugenia, born around 1856; Lula, born around 1858; Robert, born around 1860; Sallie, born around 1864; Lilly, born around 1864; Antoinette, born around 1868; and Carrie, born around 1870. Her husband worked as a gin wright and later as a cotton gin manufacturer. She died sometime after 1880.