After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1832, Stephens and his family settled in the newly established Florida Territory due to personal debts held by his father, Marcus Cicero Stephens, settling in Gadsden County.

[3] A member of the Whig Party, Stephens was elected to the Florida Territorial Council in 1841, representing Gadsden County.

[6][7] Stephens served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, and participated in the Battle of Natural Bridge in 1865.

Stephens's wife was Caroline Booth, a descendant of William Fitzgerald, a captain in the American Revolutionary War.

[11] Stephens was closely related with the Kenan political family of North Carolina, and was a maternal descendant of James Barron, a commodore in the United States Navy and commander of the USS Chesapeake during the Chesapeake–Leopard affair in 1807.