John Palmer’s (~1724-1750) 1750 probate estate inventory contains an entry for “Negro Woman Dinah,” valued at 20 pounds. Palmer’s widow, Susannah, continued to enslave Dinah after John Palmer’s death. On January 1, 1752, Susannah marries a Salem man, John Sanders, in Marblehead. When Susannah marries John Sanders, Dinah became John’s property. Yet Dinah appears to have maintained ties with Marblehead, for she publishes her intention to marry a Marbleheader only a year later: “Dinah, servant of John Sanders, and Thomas, servant of Joshua Orne, Jr. of Marblehead, int. January 20, 1753.”
Bibliography:
Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881 Volume: Essex Cases 20000-21999, Page(s): 20435:19, Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) https://app.americanancestors.org/DB515/i/13789/20435-co19/30384519.
Salem and Marblehead, Early Vital Records of Massachusetts: From 1600 to 1850, https://ma-vitalrecords.org/.
Marriage record, 1801
Probate inventory of John Palmer2