Johnson Campbell was born around 1831 in Virginia. Campbell was a turpentine laborer who resided in Lumberton (Robeson County), North Carolina, with his wife Nellie Campbell (née Grantham) and their children. Campbell was charged with larceny on March 25, 1878, and sentenced to two years in the North Carolina State Penitentiary. Campbell was recorded in the North Carolina State Penitentiary's Descriptive Register for the Years 1869-1884 as prisoner number 2619. Campbell's race was listed as Black on the 1870 federal census. Campbell was forty-seven years old when he was arrested. Campbell was noted as possessing no formal education, meaning he could not read or write at that time. During his incarceration, Campbell was leased to the Western North Carolina Railroad Company to work on railroad construction. He was discharged on January 20, 1880.