Noah Kinsey was born around 1860 in North Carolina. Kinsey worked as a laborer and resided in Lenoir County, North Carolina. Kinsey was charged with larceny on May 20, 1878, and sentenced to ten years in the North Carolina State Penitentiary. Kinsey was recorded in the North Carolina State Penitentiary's Descriptive Register for the Years 1869-1884 as prisoner number 2714. Kinsey's race was described as “colored." Kinsey was eighteen years old when he was arrested. Kinsey was noted as possessing no formal education, meaning he could not read or write at that time. During his incarceration, Kinsey was leased to the Western North Carolina Railroad Company to work on railroad construction. He escaped on August 12, 1881, and there is no record of his recapture.