As far as I can tell Samuel Titus was the son of Henry and Eliza Titus. Henry (mulatto) was b. Hudson, NY abt. 1820 and Eliza (black) was born abt. 1827 in Augusta, GA. In the 1850 census for NYC Ward 5 they have the following children:

Daniel 6 b. New York

Samuel 5. b. NY

Theodore 4 b. NY

Ceasar 0 b. NY

Somewhere between 1855 and 1860 Samuel came to live with a Quaker couple, John and Eliza (Hand) Titus. They had another son, Townsend (21) who moved to NYC with John and Eliza when he was 4 y.o. from Corwall-on-Hudson, NY. In the 1855 NY census Samuel is not listed with John and Eliza but there is a Samuel of the right age in 1850 Census with Henry Titus in NYC. Did Henry Titus (Samuel's father) know John and Eliza back in Cornwall. Did the Quakers help Eliza make it to freedom from Georgia through the underground railroad? Did something happen to Eliza, Henry's wife, that caused Henry to place Samuel under the care of John and Eliza. There are 2 black/mulatto Samuel Titus' who enlisted in the Civil War from NY, one in 1862 that says he was born in 1844 (did he misstate his birth year so he could qualify. He served on the ship Pembina in three tours (source: Fold3). The other enlisted in 1864 as soon as he turned 18 and this is the most likely match to our Samuel (source: Fold3). After the war I found a Samuel (24) married to Sarah (23) in the 1870 Census, both listed as black, in Yonkers, Westchester, NY. He was working in a hardware store. I cannot find him after that census. He may have moved west and could have listed himself as white on subsequent censuses.