Angela, Kongo Kingdom


Angela Site   Photo: Africa Access

Location: Jamestown Settlement,  2110 Jamestown Road   WilliamsburgVA 23185

“The first Africans arrived in mainland English North America in 1619. Originally taken from the Kongo Kingdom in Angola, they were stolen from a slave ship in the Gulf of Mexico by two English privateers. The English ships, the White Lion and the Treasurer, brought them to Virginia where 20 to 30 were “bought for victuals.” In 1625, one of the first Africans, a woman named “Angelo” (Angela), was listed in a colony-wide census as living in the household of Captain William Pierce of New Towne, a well-connected and wealthy planter-merchant….” https://historicjamestowne.org/archaeology/angela-site/

“Angela appears in the historical record just twice, as part of censuses conducted in the Virginia colony on February 16, 1624, and January 24, 1625. In the first she is one of the colony’s twenty-one Africans, identified as “Angelo a Negar” and living in James City. The second muster provides more detail, grouping residents according to household and including, when possible, their ages. In this list she is located in the James City household of Captain William Peirce, with Peirce’s wife and three presumably white indentured servants. One of twenty-three Africans in the colony, she is identified this time as “Angelo a Negro Woman in the Treasurer.” www.encyclopediavirginia.org/

Angela reenactment at Jamestown Settlement   Photo: Africa Access