Valentine Locus was a free man of color born in Granville County, North Carolina in about 1750. He married Rachel Pettiford, a free woman of color in either 1770 or 1774 and the couple would go on to have at least eight children together. In 1776 he enlisted as a private in the 3rd North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line for a term of two and a half years. He saw combat at the Battle of Sullivan's Island in South Carolina in June 1776. By 1778 he was listed as a private in the 2nd North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line. He was discharged in October 1778 and received a land grant in Tennessee because of his services during the war. By 1790 Valentine Locus and his family moved to Wake County, North Carolina. On September 29, 1801 a group of four men came into the Locus home in the middle of the night and severely beat Valentine and Rachel before abducting two of their children, Absalom and Polly. The criminals likely intended to sell the two children into slavery, but the children escaped from their captors and returned to their parents. Valentine Locus died in Wake County in about November 1811.