Dinah – whose surname is unknown – petitioned the Bristol Court of Aldermen in 1667 against being transported abroad to an unspecified plantation by her ‘mistress.’ The Aldermen ruled that Dinah was at liberty to work freely in Bristol until the next sessions, where both she and the mistress would be required to testify. The records of that session are lost, and the outcome of the case in unknown
Dinah is also known for visiting the Baptist prophetess Sarah Wright, in London in 1647, where she is referred to as ‘Dinah the Black‘. This relates to the hearing in that Dinah gives a religious motive for wishing to stay in Bristol, “to live here under the teaching of the Gospell”; although it is surprising that she was baptised in the last five years when her visit to Wright was twenty years previously. For more on the visit, see the article by Tamara Lewis cited below.
The record of this hearing is found in the Court’s order book, which has been transcribed by the Bristol Archives’ ‘Index of early Black presence in Bristol‘ which is reproduced below.
As the most frequent source for this story is that by John Latimer in his Annals of Bristol in the Seventeenth Century, that is also given here.
1: Court Order
Mayor and Aldermen’s committee orders – Female – The fourth day of July 1667. Whereas one Dinah a Black hath lived as a Servant to one Dorothy Smith within this Citty for the space of five yeares last past and since e[nte]rd Christian Baptisme still desiring so to live here under the teaching of the Gospell, and her m[istres]s having secretly and ag[ainst] her will caused her to be conveyed aboard the ship Robert to be transported to some foreigne plantations. Complaint whereof having bin made to [unknown word] upon Examination of the truth of the promises appearing to us and her said m[istres]s now returning to take her into her service til the next General Sessions till this cause shall be there fully heard and determined, it is ordered that the said Dinah shalbe att liberty to remaine where she will to earn gett a [living?] till the s[ai]d Sessions, and further that the s[ai]d m[istres]s and Dinah doe both then appeare w[i]th their proofes and witnesses on both sides. [Signed] Thomas Langston, Mayor. Walter Sansly. John Knight. 1667
Source: Index of early Black presence in Bristol.
2: Latimer’s Account
A curious example of the practice of kidnapping human beings for transportation to America is recorded in the minutes of the Court of Aldermen in July. The justices note that one Dinah Black had lived for five years as servant to Dorothy Smith, and had been baptised, and wished to live under the teaching of the Gospel; yet her mistress had recently caused her to be put aboard a ship, to be conveyed to the plantations. Complaint having been made. Black had been rescued, but her mistress (who had doubtless sold her) refused to take her back; and it was therefore ordered that she should be free to earn her living until the case was heard at the next quarter sessions. The Sessions Book has perished. From the peculiar manner in which she is described, it may be assumed that Dinah was a negro woman captured on the African coast, and had lived as a slave in Bristol.
Source, Latimer, The annals of Bristol in the seventeenth century, Bristol, 1900, p. 344.
Further reading: Wikipedia.
See also: Lewis, Tamara, “Wherefore She Made Suit”: African Women’s Religious and Spiritual Determinism in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England, Religions 2017, 8(11), 251.