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:Joseph Dennis Harris (c. 1833–1884)
Biographical Information
- Age 17 on August 3, 1850, and identification of mother in U. S. Census, Cumberland Co., Fayetteville District, N.C., 1850, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Age 47 on June 19, 1880 in U. S. Census, Washington, District of Columbia, 1880, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Marriage date in George Worthington, comp., The Genealogy of the Worthington Family (1894), 316
- Physical description in Cleveland Morning Leader, July 4, 1860 (first quotation)
- Accounts of mental health reported in Washington Daily Record, July 6, 1876, and Washington Evening Star, September 6, 1877
- Death date and age 51 in Death Certificate, Vital Statistics Office, Washington, D.C.
- Paul E. Sluby Sr., Graceland Cemetery, Washington, D.C.: Brief History and Records of Interments, 1872–1894 (2010), entry 6557 (age 51 on December 25, 1884) and pages viii–ix
- Constance E. H. Daniel, "Two North Carolina Families—The Harrises and the Richardsons," Negro History Bulletin 13 (1949), esp. 3–6
Work in Haiti
- J. Dennis Harris, A Summer on the Borders of the Caribbean Sea (1860)
- C. Peter Ripley et al, eds., The Black Abolitionist Papers, Volume 2, Canada, 1830–1865 (1986), esp. 437–440
Medical Education and Career
- Correspondence, medical examination, and manuscript "Sketch of Autobiography," in J. D. Harris File, Personal Papers of Medical Officers and Physicians, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, Entry 561, Record Group 94, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Correspondence and some signed monthly reports in Records of the Field Officers for the State of Virginia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedman, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872, Record Group 105, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Harris listed in monthly Returns of Commissioned Medical Officers and Physicians in Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Virginia, 1865–1869, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Record Group 105, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
- Orders for Commitment, Detention, and Discharge, 1828–1877 and Minutes of the Board of Regents, South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, 1828–1871, South Carolina Department of Mental Health Records, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina
- Philadelphia Christian Recorder, July 9, 1864
- Charleston News, February 26, 1870
- Columbia, S.C., Daily Phoenix, November 26, 1870 (fourth quotation)
- Margaret Humphreys, Intensely Human: The Health of the Black Soldier in the American Civil War (2008), 64–66
Political Career
- Nomination for lieutenant governor in Daily Richmond Whig, March 11, 1869; March 12, 1869
- Speech reported in Richmond Daily Dispatch, May 29, 1869 (second and third quotations)
- Election returns in General Orders and Circulars, Headquarters First Military District, 1869 (1870) "Summary of the Results of the election for Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Attorney General of the State of Virginia, held on the sixth (6th) day of July, 1869," 5
- Jack P. Maddex Jr., The Virginia Conservatives, 1867–1879: A Study in Reconstruction Politics (1970), 73–83
- Richard Lowe, Republicans and Reconstruction in Virginia, 1856–70 (1991), 164–179
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