Oscar Lewis was born around 1845 in North Carolina. Lewis worked as a laborer and resided in Warren County, North Carolina. Lewis was charged with larceny and receiving stolen goods on May 6, 1878, and sentenced to two years in the North Carolina State Penitentiary. This was Lewis’s third conviction. Lewis was recorded in the North Carolina State Penitentiary's Descriptive Register for the Years 1869-1884 as prisoner number 2686. In the descriptive register, Lewis's race is noted as Black. Lewis was twenty-three years old when he was arrested. Lewis was noted as being able to read. During his incarceration, Lewis was leased to the Western North Carolina Railroad Company to work on railroad construction. He was discharged on March 21, 1880.