File:James Spriggs Payne.jpg

Payne was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1819 to former slaves who were each of mixed race, of European and African ancestry. Payne grew up in a highly religious Methodist family and was a devout Christian. His father, David M. Payne, was a Methodist minister and was ordained as a deacon by the Virginia Conference in 1824.Payne was very fair; he was said to be of seven-eighths European-American ancestry, or one-eighth African. When Payne was ten years old, his family emigrated to Liberia through sponsorship by the American Colonization Society on the ship Harriet. On the same ship was Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Liberia's future first president.