Stephens had two siblings and two half-siblings; the family was broken up, with the children sent to live with kin on the side of their respective mothers.

In 1830, the administration of his father's estate was wound up, with each child receiving four hundred and forty-four dollars.

In 1836, he entered the academy at Culloden for a year only, and the following autumn, he was transferred to the guardianship of his brother, Alexander, in Crawfordville, Georgia.

[2] Then and there it was "his youth awoke first and fully to the life of the mind" under the tutelage of Colonel Simpson Fouche, head of a large and excellent school at Crawfordville, where Stephens was prepared for admission to college.

[3] In June 1859, Governor Joseph E. Brown appointed Stephens to a seat on the Georgia Supreme Court vacated by the resignation of Charles James McDonald.