Teamoh was born enslaved in 1818 in Norfolk. His parents, David and Lavinia, or Winnie, last names unknown, died when he was a young child. He and the Thomas family that owned him moved to Portsmouth about 1828. He developed a strong bond with the family matriarch, Jane Thomas. When Teamoh was about twelve, he was hired out to another family, where he was treated roughly. In 1832 while working in a brickyard he taught himself to read by listening to white children singing the alphabet in school and identifying words on handbills and posters. His clandestine attempts at literacy were curtailed when the yard’s brickmason discovered the used primer that Teamoh had found. From about 1833 until 1853 he was hired out for a series of jobs but worked mostly around the city’s shipyards as a ship’s caulker and carpenter.