James Conway Farley was born a slave in Prince Edward County, Virginia, on August 10, 1854.

In 1861 he moved with his mother to Richmond, Virginia in 1861, where she worked as a store-room keeper at the Columbia Hotel and he assisted in candle-making and learned to read.

The firm continued to have difficulty hiring white people, but Farley grew in skill and in 1879 was operator of the gallery.

Farley's work was widely exhibited, including at the Colored Industrial Fair in Richmond in 1884,[1] where he won a first prize,[2] and the World Cotton Centennial in New Orleans in 1885.

[3] Farley was a delegate to the May 1902 Virginia Baptist State Convention where he spoke in favor of black businesses.