Notable Melungeons: Nichaati Mozingo (Hannah Rebecca Arthur)
This will be the start of a series I aim to complete by the end of 2025. Every culture, community, what have you, has people significant to their history, role models, heros. Like most all things Melungeon, this isn’t something widely documented, and isn’t easily researched. As I have done in the past on my journey, I reached out to elders and community members for their oral histories. I was not disappointed, rather I learned that my people also have a large array of notable ancestors that flower our gardens of lore. Though I am not a descendant, I chose to write about Hannah Rebecca Arthur first, after hearing her story I just couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Nichaati Mozingo, later known by her married name, Hannah Rebecca Arthur, was a respected midwife and healer within her Melungeon community, during the 18th century. As a midwife and herbal healer, she played a crucial role in ensuring the well-being of her people. Her knowledge of the land’s natural resources allowed her to treat a variety of ailments, and her work was vital to the survival of her community, especially in an isolated region like the Appalachian Mountains.
In addition to her role as a healer, and probably most notably, Nichaati was a resilient and strategic leader who actively resisted colonial pressures and worked to protect her people from encroachment. She navigated the complex, often dangerous relationships between indigenous groups, settlers, and other tribes, understanding that survival depended on both preserving her people’s way of life and adapting to the shifting power dynamics of the time. She worked to maintain peace and stability for her people through diplomacy, negotiating with settlers and other tribes to secure the safety of her community. As a tribal matriarch, she was responsible for ensuring her people’s survival and the preservation of their way of life in a time when cultural assimilation and colonial pressures were strong. Her marriage to William Arthur, alleged descendant of frontiersman Gabriel Arthur, aided in her diplomacy endeavors. His understanding of settler perspectives and the dynamics of colonial expansion proved invaluable in discussions with nearby settlers.
Nichaati’s legacy was also tied to her ancestry. She was believed to be of the Whonkentyaes Indigenous Tribe through her father and the great-great-great-granddaughter of Queen Nzinga Mbande, the powerful 17th-century ruler of the Kingdom of Ndongo, in present-day Angola.
Queen Nzinga is known for her fierce resistance to Portuguese colonization and the slave trade. Nichaati’s grandfather, Edward Mozingo, was brought to the Jamestown colony as a slave in 1644 and won his freedom twenty-eight years later. He would go on to become a farmer, growing tobacco. He made his life by a creek called Pantico Run, married a white woman, and is attributed to fathering one of the country’s oldest documented mixed-race lineages. His descendants, including Nichaati, carried with them the traditions and experiences of both their African roots and the challenges they faced in the American colonies.
As a leader within her community, Nichaati’s experiences were shaped by her complex cultural heritage. She worked to preserve her people’s traditions while navigating the challenges of survival and adaptation in colonial America. Her role as Matriarch and healer placed her at the heart of the community, where she helped protect their cultural identity and way of life.
*I would like to note that there is much misinformation attaching Nichaati to the Cherokee tribe, claiming she descends from Attacullaculla. This claim has been debunked by the Cherokee Nation, as well as documentation of Edward Mozingo and his descendants., as well as documentation on Attacullaculla and his descendants.*
