Philip was an enslaved worker at Tuckahoe during the Allen period. He is thought to have been born around 1852 and was one of the children of Tom and Amy Anderson. His siblings were Maria, Abner, Cornelius, and Willis. All of the family were listed as field hands.
After the Civil War, it seems that some of the Anderson family stayed in the area. Philip’s mother had died prior to 1866. By the 1880 census, Tom Anderson is listed as living alone so it is unknown whether Philip and his siblings still lived nearby or had left the area entirely.