Charles H. Dickens (alias Pope) was born around 1860 in North Carolina. Dickens worked as a laborer and farmer who resided in Pitt County, North Carolina, and later in Conetoe (Edgecombe County), with his wife Annie Dickens and their family. Dickens was charged with larceny on May 6, 1878, and sentenced to three years in the North Carolina State Penitentiary. Dickens was recorded in the North Carolina State Penitentiary's Descriptive Register for the Years 1869-1884 as prisoner number 2715. In the descriptive register, Dickens's race is noted as "mulatto." Dickens was eighteen years old when he was arrested. Dickens was noted as possessing no formal education, meaning he could not read or write at that time. During his incarceration, Dickens was leased to the Western North Carolina Railroad Company to work on railroad construction. He was discharged on February 11, 1881.