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:James Apostle Fields (1844–1903)
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).
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
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.
Obituaries
- Death notice in Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 24, 1903
- Memorial in Southern Workman 33 (Jan. 1904), 10–11
Return to biography on Encyclopedia Virginia.
