10/18/2026
This week, we honor Dina and Bever, an enslaved couple who risked their lives for freedom multiple times in the early nineteenth century.
Bever faced an impossible choice when he and Dina attempted to flee from Jehossee, an island plantation owned by Charles Drayton.
Bever had left ten months earlier. The historic record cannot tell us where he went and what he experienced in that time, but he must have hidden from patrollers, drivers, and overseers who were actively searching for him.
Dina was also a freedom-seeker who’d struck out more than once, even attempting to remove her children from slavery and being jailed when she was captured.
In November 1807, she and Bever were traveling on the water with several other people when Dina became gravely ill. She desperately needed medical attention, but going back to Jehossee to get her help meant going back to their place of enslavement. In the end, Bever decided to return to Jehossee. Tragically, Dina died of her sickness when they returned.
This is the story of two people who sought freedom again and again, refusing to accept enslavement as the final word on their lives. Today, we remember Dina and Bever as they lived: determined, courageous, and devoted to each other.
