The origin of the term Moor is lost in history. No one knows the derivation of the term or why it became so accepted among the mixed blood people in Kent Co. Some people spoke of English sailors and their Moroccan wives arriving on Tangier Island in the Chesapeake and inter-marrying with local Indians. Some spoke of Portuguese sailor/pirates plying the Chesapeake Bay. Some spoke of a beautiful Irish slaveowner and her handsome Moorish slave. All of the stories have a fanciful quality that does not bear up to close scrutiny.

The first appearance in the official records came at the trial of Levin Sockum and Isaac Harmon , Nanticoke descendants living along the Indian River in the mid 19th century. Sockum and Harmon were both successful property owners who , because of their success, incurred the emnity of local white landowners.

In 1855 these whites hauled Sockum into court on charges of selling gunshot to a "negro" (i.e. Harmon). Sockum replied that he and Harmon were Indians and so exempt from the laws applied to Negroes. Called as a witness in the case was Lydia Clark. Lydia was considered the last Nanticoke to speak the language. She told the story that , sometime before the Revolution, a rich white woman named Regua/Requa bought a handsome Moroccan slave with whom she fell in love. Their children inter-married with the local Nanticokes and became the ancestors of Harmon and Sockum and the other Nanticokes of Indian River. Although Lydia gave no proof of her assertions and was , in fact , related to many of the Nanticokes in the courtroom , her testimony was accepted and Sockum was found guilty. Sockum was so disgusted by the verdict that he and his family moved to New Jersey.

None of the local Sussex Co. records support this story and , in fact, Lydia later recanted her testimony. She was an elderly woman , poor and living in a cabin on land owned by one of the white men who brought the case against Sockum. She said she feared losing her home if she did not testify as directed. But by then it was too late. Sockum was gone and the Nanticokes were stuck with the negro racial classification.

It is curious that, although the "Moor" legend appeared first in the Sussex Co. Court Records, the term was not used by the Indian River people but by the Kent Co. people. Cheswolds name originally was "Moorton" but this name did not have anything to do with the Moors themselves but with a local white family named "Moore" who lived in the area.

It is not known why the Kent County people accepted the term to define themselves. Interviews done with the elders in the mid 1930's reveals that none of them knew the origin of the term. They knew they were not white , they knew they were not "negro"; they were "Moors" or "colored" which , in their eyes, was quite another thing altogether.

Wilson Davis, a member of the Moor community, has preserved a number of newspaper articles written about the Moors over the years. To see copies, please visit Mitsawokett, the site maintained by Betty and Ray Terry.