Dictionary of Virginia Biography: Source list

Primary Sources 
 

• Birth date of August 1844 in United States Census Schedules, Warwick County, 1900, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• Self-reported information in Twenty-Two Years' Work of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (1893), 25 (with birth year of 1844).

• Family information in Kevin M. Clermont, ed., The Indomitable George Washington Fields: From Slave to Attorney (2013), esp. 63–66, 91–94.

• Family information in Alice M. Bacon, "From Slavery to Freedom," Southern Workman 21 (1892): 46–47, 62.

• Numerous references in Records of the Field Offices for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872, Record Group 105, M1913, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• Marriage Register, Elizabeth City County, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia.

• Warwick County Order Book (1881–1886), 232, and (1887–1891), 55, 85, 564, 610, Library of Virginia.

• Transcription of Newport News death certificate provided by Gregory Cherry (2013).

• Burial Register of Greenlawn Cemetery, Newport News Public Library (information provided by Drusilla Pair, 2013).

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Political Career 
 

• Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia for the Session of 1879–80 (1879), 150–151.

• 1889 election results in State Senate and House of Delegates Abstracts, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, no. 31, Accession 26041, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.

• Republican Ticket, November 5, 1889, Broadside Collection, Library of Virginia.

• Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia for the Session of 1889–90 (1889), 41, 47, 77, 111, 231, 246.

• Richmond Dispatch, November 9, 1889; December 18, 1889

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Secondary Sources 
 

• Biography in Luther Porter Jackson, Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), portrait on p. 11, 16–17.

• J. Clay Smith Jr., Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844–1944 (1993), 226

• John V. Quarstein and Parke S. Rouse Jr., Newport News: A Centennial History (1996), 51, 77

• Robert Francis Engs, Freedom's First Generation: Black Hampton, Virginia, 1861–1890 (2004), 106, 126, 139, 144, 149

• National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, James A. Fields House, Newport News (April 18, 2002), Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Richmond, Virginia.

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Obituaries 
 

• Death notice in Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 24, 1903

• Memorial in Southern Workman 33 (Jan. 1904), 10–11

• National Cyclopædia of American Biography (1891–1984), 35:320–321, with birth date and portrait opposite 320.
• Philip Alexander Bruce, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, and Richard L. Morton, History of Virginia (1924), 4:513–514, with birthdate.
• Marjorie W. Young, ed., Textile Leaders of the South (1963), 267–269.
• Variant birth date of 18 May 1873 in Birth Register, Pittsylvania Co., Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia.
• Marriage Register, Danville, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia.
• Birth and death dates in Death Certificate no. 4966, Danville, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia.

• Ex post facto anecdotal account of strike and Fitzgerald in Julian R. Meade, I Live in Virginia (1935), esp. 6–23, 42, 61–68, 74–75.
• Robert Sidney Smith, Mill on the Dan: A History of Dan River Mills, 1882–1950 (1960).
• Robert Eugene King, "A Cultural Innovation that Failed: The Rise and Fall of 'Industrial Democracy' at the Riverside and Dan River Cotton Mills, Danville, Virginia, 1919–1930" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1978).
• Malcolm A. Cross, Dan River Runs Deep: An Informal History of a Major Textile Company, 1950–1981 (1982), esp. 243–246.

• Laura A. Davies, "Harrison R. Fitzgerald—Cotton Mill President," Volta Review, 26 (1924): 1–10.
• Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 3, 1908; January 23, 1931
• Richmond News Leader, May 18, 1928
• Washington Post, October 21, 1930

• Danville Register, February 24–26, 1931
• New York Times, February 24, 1931
• Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 24, 1931
• Washington Post, February 25, 1931

• Birth and death dates in Death Certificate, Danville, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia.
• Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers (1861–1865), War Department Collection of Confederate Records, Record Group 109, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
• Marriage License, 1868, Pittsylvania County.
• State Corporation Commission Charter Book, 4:392–394, 5:211–213, 324–327, 470–471, 8:201–205, 14:20–24, 28:252–258, 49:108–110, 70:24–28, Record Group 112, Library of Virginia.

• Duval Porter, ed., Men, Places and Things (1891), 359–360.
• Robert Sidney Smith, "Mill on the Dan: Riverside Cotton Mills, 1882–1901," Journal of Southern History 21 (1955): 38–66.
• Robert Sidney Smith, Mill on the Dan: A History of Dan River Mills, 1882–1950 (1960).
• Marjorie W. Young, ed., Textile Leaders of the South (1963), 266–270 (portrait on 266).
• Malcolm A. Cross, Dan River Runs Deep: An Informal History of a Major Textile Company, 1950–1981 (1982), 240–248.

• Danville Register, January 6, 1929
• Richmond Times-Dispatch, January 6, 1929

• Harvey Wish, George Fitzhugh: Propagandist of the Old South (1943), with frontispiece portrait, with Nov. 4, 1806, birth date (p. 6) commonly found in reference works, and with variant death date of July 29, 1881 (p. 340).
• Nov. 9, 1806, birth date and marriage date in Fitzhugh Family Bible record, 1804–1986, p. 11, Accession 33563, Library of Virginia.
• Death date of July 30, 1881, on gravestone inscription in Walker County Texas Cemeteries (2000– ), 3:7.

• George Frederick Holmes Papers, Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, N.C.
• George Frederick Holmes Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
• Gerrit Smith Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.
• Anti-Slavery Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass.
• George Fitzhugh to William Lloyd Garrison, Sept. 29, 1856, "The Challenge Accepted," Liberator 26 (Oct. 10 1856): 163, second quotation.

• Slavery Justified; by a Southerner (1850).
• What Shall Be Done With the Free Negroes (1851).
• Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society (1854), first quotation on 293.
• "Southern Thought— Its New and Important Manifestations," De Bow's Review 23 (1857): 337–349, third quotation on 347.
• Cannibals All! Or, Slaves Without Masters (1857), fourth quotation on 294.
• "The Revolutions of 1776 and 1861 Contrasted," Southern Literary Messenger 37 (1863): 718–726.
• "Freedmen and Free Men," De Bow's Review 1, new ser. (1866): 416–420.
• "Land Monopoly," Lippincott's Magazine 4 (1869): 286–291, fifth quotation on 290.
• "The Freedman and His Future," Lippincott's Magazine 4 (1869): 436–439.

• Eugene D. Genovese, The World the Slaveholders Made: Two Essays in Interpretation (1969), 118–244.
• Jonathan M. Wiener, "Coming to Terms with Capitalism: The Postwar Thought of George Fitzhugh," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 87 (1979): 438–447.
• Andrew W. Foshee, "George Fitzhugh: Proponent of an Agrarian South," Southern Studies 23 (1984): 155–166.
• William W. Freehling, The Road to Disunion, vol. 2, Secessionists Triumphant, 1854–1861 (2007), 35–39.

• United States Census Schedules, Lancaster County, 1860 (age two on June 22), 1870 (age twelve on July 16), 1900 (birth date recorded as January 1861), 1910 (age fifty-two in May), 1920 (age sixty-one on February 10), 1930 (age sixty-eight on April 30), all in Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
• Age thirty-four on September 7, 1895, in Stevenson and Alexander & Co. v. J. C. Palmer, Etc., Lancaster County Chancery Causes, 1896-002 [p. 74], Local Government Records Collection, Lancaster Court Records, Library of Virginia.
• First marriage recorded in Lancaster County Marriage Register, 1883, Library of Virginia.
• Lancaster County Deed Book 46:273, Library of Virginia (earliest record as justice of the peace dated July 29, 1887).
• Report of the Secretary of the Commonwealth to the Governor and General Assembly of Virginia (1904–1937).
• Virginia Department of Health, "List of Registrars of Births and Deaths in the Commonwealth of Virginia," Virginia Health Bulletin 4 (1912): 231.
• Death date at age of seventy-six years and eight months on Death Certificate, Lancaster County, 1937, Bureau of Vital Statistics Records, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia.

• Luther Porter Jackson, Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), p. 64 (identifying Flemings as a storekeeper, a justice of the peace for thirty years or more, and "Very useful to his community").

• Washington Post, April 2, 1896
• Richmond Dispatch, July 24, 1896
• Irvington Virginia Citizen, October 12, 1900; October 21, 1904; October 12, 1906; August 16, 1907; November 8, 1907; June 19, 1908; December 18, 1908; June 3, 1910
• Kilmarnock Rappahannock Record, October 27, 1927; November 10, 1927; November 5, 1931; November 7, 1935
• Baltimore Afro-American, October 25, 1930

• Kilmarnock Rappahannock Record, April 8, 1937, with birth date of July 1860 (quotation)

Primary Sources 
 

• Birth and death dates in Death Certificate, Charles City County, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia.

• Registers of Signatures of Depositors, Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865–1874, Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Record Group 101, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• Charles City Co. marriage license.

• Richmond Daily Whig, March 18, 1881 (quotation).

• A few letters from Franklin in William Mahone Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, N.C.

• 1889 election in Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, no. 31, Accession 26041, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.

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Secondary Sources 
 

• Brief biography in Luther Porter Jackson, Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), 17–18.

• Allen B. Doggett Jr., "Three Negro Communities in Tidewater Virginia," Hampton Bulletin 19 (Oct. 1923): 30–45.

• Willnette Davis Carter, "The Development of Education for Negroes in Charles City County, Virginia, During the Period 1870–1950" (M.S. thesis, Virginia State College, 1952), 60–63.

• J. P. Carter et al., Organization and Development of Elam Baptist Church, 1976 (1976), 31–32.

• John M. Craig, "Community Cooperation in Ruthville, Virginia, 1900–1930," Phylon 48 (1987): 132–140.

Biographical Information 
 

• Biographical information in Halifax Co. Chancery Cases:
  • John Freeman v. Assignees of Robert Hill et al., 1875-067.
  • John Freeman v. William Taylor & Son et al., 1875-069.
  • Creditors of John Freeman v. John Freeman, 1883-098.

• Possibly the John Freeman recorded in United States Census Schedules, Richmond City, 1860 (age 50), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• Halifax Co. Deed Book 63:314, 315, 540, 663, 681.

• Halifax Co. Will Book 31:512–513 (with will misdated as May 17, 1877).

• Death Register, Halifax Co., Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia.

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Political Career 
 

• Richmond Daily Dispatch, May 10, 1867 (one of the several men named John Freeman in Richmond); Sept. 23, 1870; Dec. 19, 1870; Dec. 23, 1870; Nov. 8, 1871; Nov. 9, 1871; Nov. 16, 1871; Apr. 5, 1872, Apr. 19, 1872.

• Richmond Whig and Advertiser, Sept. 2, 1870; Sept. 2, 1871 (hostile description of Freeman's speech); Oct. 27, 1871.

• Richmond Daily State Journal, Apr. 19, 1872; July 10, 1872; Mar. 21, 1873; July 29, 1873.

• Petersburg Daily Index, Dec. 14, 1872.

• Hostile character sketch of one of the politically active Richmond men named John Freeman in Richmond Southern Opinion, Aug. 17, 1867.

• Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, No. 4 (1871), Record Group 13, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.

• Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia (1871–1872), 33, 43, 97, 104, 121, 179, 389.

• Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia (1872–1873), 22, 25, 30, 56, 84, 155, 169, 191, 262.

• Mills E. Godwin Jr., Some Recollections (1992), with birth date on 1 and 120.
• Godwin Family Genealogical Notes, Accession 31508, Library of Virginia.
• LL.B. in 1940 confirmed by Registrar's Office, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
• Marriage Certificate, Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Va.
• Mills E. Godwin Papers, 1943–1978, Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.
• Mills E. Godwin Executive Papers, 1966–1970, Record Group 3, Accession 27210, Library of Virginia.
• Mills E. Godwin Executive Papers, 1974–1978, Record Group 3, Accession 29320, Library of Virginia.
• Numerous sound recordings in WRVA Radio Collection, including first inaugural address, January 15, 1966 (WRVA-399), Accession 38210, Library of Virginia.

• J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics, 1945–1966 (1968).
• M. Carl Andrews, No Higher Honor: The Story of Mills E. Godwin, Jr. (1970), with first quotation on 42.
• James L. Bugg Jr., "Mills Edwin Godwin Jr., A Man for All Seasons," in The Governors of Virginia, 1860–1978, ed. Edward E. Younger and James Tice Moore (1982), 373–391 (fourth quotation on 378).
• Frank B. Atkinson, The Dynamic Dominion: Realignment and the Rise of Two-Party Competition in Virginia, 1945–1980, 2d ed., rev. (2006).

• Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 4, 1961 (second quotation); July 6, 1961 (third quotation); January 8, 1978
• Washington Post, October 11, 1973 (fifth quotation)
• Richmond News Leader, August 5, 1987

• New York Times, February 2, 1999
• Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, February 1, 1999; February 2, 1999; February 3, 1999 (account of funeral).
• Richmond Free Press, February 11–13, 1999
• Richmond Times-Dispatch, February 1, 1999; February 3, 1999 (with account of funeral)
• Washington Post, February 1, 1999; February 3, 1999

• Birth and death dates from funerary monument in Saint Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth, England, as printed in Henry Swinden, The History and Antiquities of the Ancient Burgh of Great Yarmouth in the County of Norfolk (1772), 875
• Family relationships in G. E. Cokayne, ed., Complete Baronetage, vol. 5 (1906), 91
• Approximate date and place of marriage in Allegation of April 14, 1714, parish of Saint Martin Orgars, in London and Surrey Marriage Bonds and Allegations, London Metropolitan Archives, London, England
• Gooch's correspondence in:
• Colonial Office Papers 5, Public Record Office, National Archives, Kew, England (available on Virginia Colonial Records Project microfilm, Library of Virginia)
• Letters to the bishop of London in Fulham Palace Papers, Lambeth Palace Library, London, England, have been published in George MacLaren Brydon, ed., "The Virginia Clergy: Governor Gooch's Letters to the Bishop of London, 1727–1749," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 32 (1924): 209–236, 321–337 and 33 (1925): 51–64
• Transcripts of Gooch's letters to his brother in John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Virginia

• Percy Scott Flippin, "William Gooch: Successful Royal Governor of Virginia," William and Mary Quarterly, 2d ser., 5 (1925): 225–258, and 6 (1926): 1–38
• David Alan Williams, "Political Alignments in Colonial Virginia Politics, 1698–1750" (Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1959)
• Andrew Karl Prinz, "Sir William Gooch in Virginia: The King's Good Servant" (Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1963)
• Edward M. Riley, "Governor William Gooch, A Faithful Trustee for the Public Good," Goochland County Historical Society Magazine 6 (Spring 1974): 5–13
• Randall Shrock, "Maintaining the Prerogative: Three Royal Governors in Virginia as a Case Study, 1710–1758" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 1980), esp. 82–186
• Stacy L. Lorenz, "'To Do Justice to His Majesty, the Merchant and the Planter': Governor William Gooch and the Virginia Tobacco Inspection Act of 1730," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 108 (2000): 345–392

• Gentleman's Magazine 21 (1751): 573
• Williamsburg Virginia Gazette, February 27, 1752
• New-York Gazette revived in the Weekly Post-Boy, March 2, 1752 (with place of death)
• Annapolis Maryland Gazette, March 12, 1752

Biographical Information 
 

• United States Census Schedules, Petersburg, 1870 (age thirty-one), Henrico Co., 1880 (age forty), Atlantic City, N.J., 1900 (age sixty-four with Nov. 1835 birth date) and 1910 (age sixty-five; last known reference), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• Petersburg Hustings Court Register of Marriages.

• Atlantic City, N.J., city directories, 1893–1910 (last year listed).

• Brief biography in Luther Porter Jackson, Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), 18 (with birth place).

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Political Career 
 

• Richmond Daily State Journal, Sept. 23, 1873; Oct. 9, 1873.

• Richmond Daily Dispatch, Nov. 5, 1873.

• Petersburg Index and Appeal, May 20, 1874.

• Washington, D.C., National Republican, Apr. 5, 1875.

• Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, Election Record No. 6 (1873), Record Group 13, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.

• Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia (1874 sess.), 40, 115, 120, 316 (quotation), 321.

• Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia (1874–1875 sess.), 46, 102, 184, 283, 313, 332, 440.

Primary Sources 
 

• Age 32 on July 7, 1870, in United States Census Schedules, Petersburg, 1870, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• 1884 marriage in Petersburg Marriage Register 1 (1854–1890), pp. 137–138, Library of Virginia (age 43 on December 24)

• Land purchases documented in City of Petersburg Hustings Court Deed Books, especially 32, 37, 38, 40, 42, 46, 48, 49), Library of Virginia

• 1881 election in Election Record No. 17, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, Accession 26041, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia

• 1883 election in Election Record No. 65, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, Accession 22484, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia

• Age 54 on March 6, 1892, in Death Register, Petersburg, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia

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Secondary Sources 
 

• Brief biography in Luther Porter Jackson, Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), 18 (with undocumented birth year of 1841 and erroneous death year of 1893), 86

• William D. Henderson, Gilded Age City: Politics, Life and Labor in Petersburg, Virginia, 1874–1889 (1980)

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Newspapers 
 

• Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1881; November 8, 1883

• Petersburg Lancet, September 22, 1883 (first quotation)

• New York Sun, February 29, 1884 (second quotation)

• Petersburg Daily Index-Appeal, March 11, 1892

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Obituaries 
 

• Detroit Plaindealer, April 1, 1892 (third quotation)

Biographical Information 
 

• Paternity and year of birth ("in his tenth year" on Feb. 22, 1857) documented in Robert Anderson's will, Williamsburg Will Book 2:7–12.

• Paternity documented in Maria Griffin et al v. Executors of Helen M. Anderson et al., James City Co. Chancery Cause, 1873-005, Library of Virginia.

• Year of birth ("in his eleventh year" on 1 October 1857 in Anderson to Theodore Weld) in Robert Anderson Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, N.C.

• March 1847 birth date in United States Census Schedules, 1900, York Co., Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• One letter in Robert Anderson Papers, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, Va.

• Compiled Service Military Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served With the U.S. Colored Troops, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, Record Group 94, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• Philadelphia Marriage Returns, 1871, Philadelphia Department of Health, Philadelphia City Archives.

• Property transactions in York Co. Deed Books 18–31, 34, 36, 37, 39, 39A, 45.

• Feb. 9, 1927 death date in burial records, Eden Cemetery, Collingdale, Penn.

• Feb. 9, 1927 death date in U.S. Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907–1933, Record Group 15, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• Variant Feb. 10, 1927 death date in Pennsylvania Veterans Burial Cards, 1929–1990, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Penn.

• Luther Porter Jackson, Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), 18.

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Political Career 
 

• Griffin's depositions in James H. Platt, Jr., vs. John Goode, Jr., 44th Congress, 1st session, U.S. House of Representatives Miscellaneous Document No. 65:222, 382, 449–450.

• Record of Appointment of Postmasters, Virginia, York County, Post Office Department, Record Group 28, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• Richmond Daily Whig, Mar. 18, 1881; Sept. 1, 1883.

• Richmond Campaign, Sept. 12, 1885.

• Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, No. 64 (1883), Record Group 13, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.

• Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia, (1883–1884 sess.), 34–35, 435, 637–639 (committee report on eligibility), 658 (reference to minority report).

Primary Sources 
 

• United States Census Schedules, Mecklenburg Co., 1870 (age thirty-one), 1880 (age thirty-nine; wife identified as Martha), District of Columbia, 1900 (born Jan. 1843), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• Poll Book, 3d District, Mecklenburg County, Military Rule Election Records, Secretary of the Commonwealth, 1867, 1869, Record Group 13, Library of Virginia.

• Identified as "Poss White alias Hamilton" in Charlotte Co. Order Book, 37:141, as "Posse White alias Hamilton" in Richmond Daily Dispatch, June 23, 1869, and as "Ross Hamilton" in Alexandria Gazette, June 24, 1869.

• Second marriage in Marriage License, District of Columbia Record Book 20, 228, Washington, D.C. Records Office.

• Family data, two letters, and estate records in Bettie Hamilton Smith et al. v. Administrator of Ross Hamilton, Mecklenburg Co. Chancery Causes, 1906-009, Library of Virginia.

• Property transactions documented in Mecklenburg County Deed Books 38–64, esp. 38:256–257, 40: 221–223, 434–435, 48:149, 151, 281, 51:173–175, 259–260, 53:62–63, 63:285–286, and 64:83–84, 561–564.

• Property ownership documented in Ross Hamilton, Trustee of Mary Beard Farrar v. Administrator of James Beard et al., Mecklenburg Co. Chancery Cause 1876-025, and in Ross Hamilton v. Administrator of Lewis Thompson, Mecklenburg Co. Chancery Cause., 1887-013, both Library of Virginia.

• Death at age fifty-eight on May 2, 1901, in District of Columbia Death Certificate, Washington, D.C. Health Department.

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Secondary Sources 
 

• Luther Porter Jackson, Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), vi (portrait), 19.

• Harold S. Forsythe, "'But My Friends Are Poor': Ross Hamilton and Freedpeople's Politics in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, 1869–1901," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 105 (1997): 409–438 (family portrait on 410).

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Political Career 
 

• Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, Nos. 3 (1870), 4 (1871), 6 (1873), 10 (1875), 13 (1877), 17 (1881), 31 (1889), State Government Records Collection, Record Group 13, Library of Virginia.

• Journals of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia (1869–1870 sess.), 502, 1871–1872 sess., 33, 1874 sess., 41, 1875–1876 sess., 50, 1876 sess., 29, 1877–1878 sess., 34, 1879–1880 sess., 30, 1881–1882 sess., 30, 31, 168, 310 (quotation), 1882 extra sess., 110, 1889–1890 sess., 41, 42, 115–119 (election challenge).

• Correspondence in William Mahone Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, N.C.

• Washington Post, Oct. 5, 1892.

• Richmond Dispatch, July 18, 1894; Nov. 8, 1898.

• Norfolk Virginian, Oct. 24, 1895.

• Washington, D.C., Evening Star, Oct. 14, 1898.

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Obituaries 
 

• Washington, D.C., Evening Star, May 3, 1901.

• Alexandria Gazette, May 4, 1901 (with erroneous report "died yesterday").

• Richmond Times, May 5, 1901 (with erroneous death date of May 3, 1901).

• Biography in Alexander Brown, The First Republic in America (1898), 908–909.
• Biography in Martha W. McCartney, Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607–1635: A Biographical Dictionary (2007), 358–359.
• Christening date and identity of parents in William Brigg, ed., The Register Book of the Parish of St. Nicholas Acons, London, 1539–1812 (1890), 10.
• Father's and step-mother's wills in Henry F. Waters, ed., Genealogical Gleanings in England, 2 vols. (1901), 2:1000, 1012–1013.
• Brasenose College Register, 1509–1909 (1909), 1:102.
• John Venn and J. A. Venn, comps., Alumni Cantabrigienses (1922), 1:295.
• Wife's family in John Frederick Dorman, comp., Adventurers of Purse and Person, Virginia, 1607–1624/5, 4th ed., 3 vols. (2004–2007), 1:699–700.

• Samuel M. Bemiss, ed., The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London (1957), first quotation on 39.
• Raphe Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia (1615), second and third quotations on unnumbered page facing 1; fourth quotation on 1; fifth quotation on title page.
• Susan Myra Kingsbury, ed., The Records of the Virginia Company of London, 4 vols. (1906–1935): sixth quotation on 3:697; seventh quotation on 4:110.
• 1622 attacks in Philip L. Barbour, ed., The Complete Works of Captain John Smith (1580–1631), 3 vols. (1986), 2:296.
• H. R. McIlwaine, ed., Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia, 2d ed., rev. (1979): eighth quotation on 132; dead by October 11, 1626, on 117.

Primary Sources 
 

• Birth date in Harris's 1889 testimony printed in John M. Langston vs. E. C. Venable, 51st Congress, 1st Session, House Report 2462, serial 2814, pp. 38–39

• Alfred William Harris Papers (with 1881 law degree), Johnston Memorial Library, Virginia State University, Ettrick, Virginia

• Alexandria Marriage Register, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia

• Harris's election to the House of Delegates in 1881 (Election Record No. 17), 1883 (Election Record No. 65), 1885 (Election Record No. 19), and 1887 (Election Record No. 24), all in Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, Accession 26041, 22484, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia

• "Report of Committee on Public Institutions and Education Relative to the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute," Senate Doc. 25 and Addenda, in Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Virginia: Begun…on Wednesday, December 2, 1885 [1886]

• Colored Agricultural and Industrial Association of Virginia incorporation in Acts and Joint Resolutions Passed by the General Assembly of the State of Virginia During the Session of 1885–'86 (1886), 34–35

• Dinwiddie County (Va.) Chancery Causes, City of Petersburg v. A. W. Harris et al, 1914-006, Local Government Records Collection, Dinwiddie Court Records, Library of Virginia

• Death Certificate, Petersburg, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Health, Record Group 36, Library of Virginia

, 
Secondary Sources 
 

• Brief biography in Luther Porter Jackson, Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), 20

, 
Newspapers 
 

• Richmond Daily Whig, July 9, 1880; March 16, 1881; April 24, 1884; July 16, 1885; May 18, 1888

• Alexandria People's Advocate, October 8, 1881

• Richmond Daily Dispatch, April 24, 1884

• Richmond State, July 16, 1885

• Petersburg Daily Index and Appeal, November 8, 1886; May 19, 1888; June 5, 1912; June 8, 1912

• Richmond Dispatch, January 18, 1888

• Washington, D.C., National Leader, September 7, 1889

• Baltimore Sun, January 27, 1890

• Washington Post, December 2, 1905

• Richmond Times-Dispatch, April 7, 1910

, 
Obituaries 
 

• Petersburg Evening Progress, March 25, 1920; March. 27, 1920 (with account of funeral)

• Richmond Planet, March 27, 1920

Biographical Information 
 

• Brief biography with age thirty-four in Richmond Daily Dispatch, Aug. 20, 1875.

• Father identified in A. K. Brown to O. O. Howard, Apr. 11, 1867, Records of the Field Offices for the State of Virginia (1865–1872), Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, M1913, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

• Mother identified in Betsy Harris et al. v. Henry C. Harris et al., Buckingham Co. Chancery Court Order Book 1:43–45.

• Account of Harris as a census enumerator (mistakenly identified as working in Goochland County) in David B. Parker, A Chautauqua Boy in '61 and Afterward (1912), 158–160.

• Roanoke Times, Sept. 17, 1891 (misidentified as of Charlotte County).

• Employees in the Department of Justice, 1897, 54th Cong., 2d sess., House of Rep. Doc. No. 160.

• Last known reference to Harris in Halifax Co. Deed Book 100: 262–263.

• Biography in Luther Porter Jackson, Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895 (1945), 20.

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Political Career 
 

• Secretary of the Commonwealth, Election Records, 1776–1941, No. 6 (1873), 10 (1875), and 44 (1899), Record Group 13, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia.

• Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia (1874 sess.), 41, 51, 57, 61, 67, 207, 442.

• Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia (1874–1875 sess.), 332.

• Richmond Daily Dispatch, May 23, 1870; Nov. 3, 1875.

• Richmond Daily State Journal, Jan. 6, 1874 (quotation).

• Richmond Daily Whig, Mar. 18, 1881.

• Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 27, 1899.

• Richmond Dispatch, Nov. 9, 1899.