Richard Collins was born around 1851 in North Carolina. Collins worked as a laborer and resided in Halifax County, North Carolina. Collins was charged with larceny on November 2, 1874, and sentenced to ten years in the North Carolina State Penitentiary. Collins was recorded in the North Carolina State Penitentiary's Descriptive Register for the Years 1869-1884 as prisoner number 984. In the descriptive register, Collins' race is noted as Black. Collins was twenty-three years old when he was arrested. Collins was noted as possessing no formal education, meaning he could not read or write at that time. During his incarceration, Collins was leased to the Western North Carolina Railroad Company to work on railroad construction. He died while working on the Western North Carolina Railroad on June 21, 1876.