Christopher Thomas Hancock was born in New Bern (Craven County), North Carolina, on October 26, 1859. Hancock was a real estate agent in New Bern. In December 1898, he wrote a lengthy op-ed arguing that Black North Carolinians could be legally stripped of their right to hold office and their right to vote based on race alone (see "The Negro and the Constitution," in the Raleigh News and Observer, 11 December 1898). He died in New Bern on February 21, 1921.