I hope the following helps with your search---send an e-mail if you have questions--Diane Parker, a Mullin descendant from Lawrence County Alabama.

This web site list the history of the Mullins/Mullens genealogy. http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/nirvana/621/mullens.html

Also a distant cousin sent me the following: Mother and I went to the TX State Library yesterday and found another reference to Dow Mull*ns, son of Shepherd and Sallie (Downs) Mull*ns. Shepherd was a slave held originally by James Mull*ns of Lieghton AL (s/o William Thomas Mull*ns and Sallie Potts). James deeded Shepherd to his son Dr. James Henry Mull*ns (husband of Isabella V. Downs whose father W.W. Downs may have been slaveholder of Sallie Downs) who came to Waco TX c1853/1854 with my 3rd great grandparents and others. After emancipation, Shepherd became one of the first black legislators in the Texas Legislature. Mother and I viewed his probate papers in Waco last week and discovered that he had a son, Lorenzo Dow Mull*ns. All known published sources had indicated that he had no issue. Dow was probably born about 1868. Yesterday, we found an 1880 Waco City Directory showing him, so we know he lived at least that long. Mother thinks she may have him noted in some volumes of miscellaneous notes she has taken over the years, so a chance we may turn up something there.