Davy was an enslaved African American man. Laura Placida Cotten was presumably Davy's enslaver, but no records have been located which can confirm this hypothesis. Davy lived with the Cotten family in Raleigh, where some of his responsibilities included helping Margaret Eliza Cotten and her friends travel home from school at St. Mary's, and going to the post office to pick up or deliver mail for the Cotten family. Any further records about his age or status after the Civil War have not been located.