James Hines was born in Surry County, Virginia on October 5, 1750. In 1769 he, along with his father and brother, became a resident of Edgecombe County, North Carolina. In about 1778 the Hines moved to Pitt County, North Carolina, where they became near neighbors of Jehu Tison. Hines gave a deposition regarding the death of Jim Bowser and enslaved boy who had died at the Tison household. Hines later moved to Effingham County, Georgia, where he sometime after February 1793.