The Dictionary of Virginia Biography is published online through a partnership with Encyclopedia Virginia. Biographies that do not also appear in the three print volumes (surnames Aaroe�Daniels) link to lists of sources consulted.
Sources consulted for the biography of:Frank Moss ( –d. 1884)
Biographical Information
- Luther Porter Jackson, Free Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), 29 (described as "born free").
- Charles W. White, The Hidden and Forgotten: Buckingham County (1985), 118–119 (with purported portrait and place of burial).
- Eugene A. Maloney, A History of Buckingham County (1976), 69–72.
- United States Census Schedules, Buckingham Co., Va., 1870 (age 45 on July 18) and 1880 (age 57 on June 19), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Primary Sources
- Buckingham Co. Deed Books 1:487, 2:336–337, 4:557–558.
- J. C. Connor to Office of Military Commissioner, January 2, 1869 (describing Moss as a "Freedman"), Records of the Field Offices for the State of Virginia (1865–1872), Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, M1913, Roll 78, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Thomas P. Jackson to Frank Moss, September 4, 1868 (fourth quotation), in Records of the Field Offices for the State of Virginia (1865–1872), Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, M1913, Roll 79, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- 1873 indictment and trial in Buckingham Co. Court Minute Book 2:300–301, 303, 308, 310–311, 319–320.
Political Career
- Moss's 1867 election in Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, no. 427, Accession 38055, Barcode 1151341, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.
- Debates and Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Virginia, Assembled at the City of Richmond, Tuesday, December 3, 1867 (1868), 60, 713–714 (second quotation).
- Richard G. Lowe, "Virginia's Reconstruction Convention: General Schofield Rates the Delegates," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 80 (1972): 351 (described as a "Former slave"; first quotation).
- Richard L. Hume, "The Membership of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867–1868: A Study of the Beginnings of Congressional Reconstruction in the Upper South," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 86 (1978): 461–484, voting record on 483.
- Moss's election to Senate of Virginia in General Orders and Circulars, Headquarters First Military District, 1869 (1870), "Summary of the result of the election for members of the State Senate of Virginia, held July 6, 1869," p. 5.
- Moss's election to the House of Delegates in 1873 (Election Record No. 2), Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, Accession 26041, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.
Newspapers
- Physical description in Richmond Daily Enquirer and Examiner, June 24, 1868 (third quotation).
- Physical descriptions in Richmond Whig and Advertiser, February 4, 1870; October 27, 1871; December 20 1872; November 21, 1873.
- 1873 indictment and trial covered in Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 21, 1873, and Richmond Daily State Journal, November 22, 1873.
- Farmville Mercury, September 18, 1873 (fifth quotation).
- Richmond Daily Whig, March 19, 1874 (Moss reported as identifying himself as born enslaved; sixth quotation).
- Alexandria Gazette, March 19, 1874 (also sixth quotation).
- Death mentioned in Staunton Spectator, August 12, 1884.
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