Angolan Connection
Program Information
Series: Jamestown: A Fruitful SoilDuration: 00:02:00
Year Produced: 2008
Description:
Angela, an African from what is now the modern nation of Angola, was captured by Portuguese slave traders for shipment to the Spanish colony of Mexico. In 1619, when her ship was captured by privateers in the Caribbean, she became one of the first Africans in Virginia. "Jamestown: A Fruitful Soil" provides a historical overview of the people and events of 17th-century Virginia.
For more information visit: http://historyisfun.orgTranscript
Angela, an African from what is now the modern nation of Angola, was captured by Portuguese slave traders for shipment to the Spanish colony of Mexico. In 1619, when her ship was captured by privateers in the Caribbean, she became one of the first Africans in Virginia.
I’m Steve Clark with Jamestown: A Fruitful Soil, a celebration of Virginia’s Quadricentennial sponsored by Jamestown Settlement, a living history museum in the Williamsburg area of Virginia.
Angela came from the Kingdom of Ndongo in Angola, a nation of several hundred thousand who strongly resisted Portuguese colonial expansion in Africa. Although Ndongo had a monarch, each village was to a certain degree autonomous. Most Ndongans lived in small palisaded agricultural villages, but the Kingdom also had towns with populations of several thousand.
The Angolan diet was like that of rural areas world wide. Women grew fruits and vegetables in family and communal plots. The Ndongans also ate meat from domesticated animals and from wild prey. Skilled craftsmen worked steel, copper and other metals. Cloth was woven from fibers of pounded tree bark, and legal tender took the form of nzimbu shells and copper bracelets called manillas.
Their religion was a mixture of traditional beliefs and Catholic Christianity introduced by the Portuguese. Polygamy was allowed and a wealthy man could have several wives and many highly valued children.
By 1625 Angela, misnamed Angelo in Virginia records was owned by prominent planter, William Peirce. It is unclear whether she was a servant or a slave, for until later that century, African slaves frequently labored alongside indentured servants. It was, after all, a wilderness frontier, and there, most lived and worked side by side. It is not known whether Angela ever became a free person in Virginia.
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