Hi Katherine Harbury!
The John Kiquotan of Surry County you mentioned in your post was actually 
the son of John Kecatan, a "Negro" slave of the Hoe family of Charles City 
County who was freed about 1666. "Negro" John was accused of having sex with 
every servant maid in the district, so it is no surprise that the family was 
very light skinned. They shortened the name to Tann and mixed with the 
light-skinned Sweat and Jeffries families of Surry County and spread 
throughout the country by the early 1800s. One member of the family had a 
child by a slave in Northampton County, North Carolina, and was my wife's 
ancestor.
One joined the Shakers in Indiana in 1808, one was the real-life doctor in 
"Little House on the Prairie," and one refused to pay the discriminatory tax 
on African Americans in South Carolina, claiming descent from a "coloured 
woman with thick skin and long hair" originally from North Carolina who 
claimed to be an Egyptian. You can read the entire story on 
http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Tann_Viers.htm

Another African American family of freed slaves originally took the Indian 
name Yoconohawcon before shortening it to Nickens.
Paul 

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