Queen Njinga of Angola
The first documented Africans in Virginia (1619) were from the Kingdom on Ndongo what is now Angola. Ndongo was ruled by Queen Njinga who converted to Catholicism, became literate in Portuguese and was schooled in the tactics of war. Initially an ally of the Portuguese, she fought them when they tried to expand slavery.
The Jamestown Museum in Jamestown, Virginia has an exhibit on the Kongo Kingdom and a statue of Queen Njinga.
Resources
Heywood, Linda. Njinga of Angola. Harvard University, 2017.
Snethen, Jessica. “Queen Nzinga (1583-1663).” BlackPast.org. University of Washington, Seattle, n.d. Web. 29 Aug. 2015. <http://www.blackpast.org/ gah/queen-nzinga-1583-1663>.
Discovering Jamestown: West Central Africans. Jamestown Museum. n.d. Wed, 15 Feb 2016.