Dinah was an American Indian woman of an unknown tribal origin. The first record of Dinah's enslavement comes from a 1695 estate inventory of North Carolina governor Seth Sothel, which listed Dinah as being pregnant. The inventory indicates that Sothel enslaved her sometime prior to his death in 1694. Dinah and her unborn child's ownership then transferred to Sothel's widow, Anna and when Anna died in early 1695, Dinah then became enslaved by Anna's next husband, John Lear. When John Lear too died by the end of 1695, the Sothel/Lear estate records fell into disorder and several estate executors proceeded to squabble over who had a right to the estate and with it, the ownership of Dinah and several other individuals that the Sothels/Lears had enslaved. Any further records about Dinah and her child's fate have not been located.