Though historical information on her life is scarce, records show that she visited Baptist spiritualist Sarah Wight in London in 1647 and appeared in a case heard by the Bristol Court of Aldermen in July 1667 after escaping from a ship which was supposed to transport her to a plantation overseas.
In 1647, a maid born outside England, referred to as Dinah the Black, visited the Baptist spiritualist Sarah Wight in London and asked her for advice.
"[2] Twenty years later, Dinah appeared in a case before the Bristol Court of Aldermen in July 1667; having worked as a servant in the home of Dorothy Smith in Bristol, she was now to be put on a ship and be transported to a plantation overseas, but managed to escape.
The aldermen ruled that since Dorothy Smith did not wish to take her back, she should be free to earn her living until the next quarter sessions.
[citation needed] Dinah's story has been described as "the most revealing of Bristol's black records.