Emanuel Driggus (b. c. 1620s-d. 1673) and his wife Frances were enslaved

Atlantic Creole Atlantic Creole is a cultural identifier of those with origins in the transatlantic settlement of the Americas via Europe and Africa.Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...

. The name ''Driggus'' is likely a corruption of the

Portuguese name A Portuguese name, or Lusophone name – a personal name in the Portuguese language – is typically composed of one or two personal names, the mother's family surname and the father's family surname (rarely only one surname, sometimes more than ...

''Rodrigues'' as he may have been born in the

Kingdom of Ndongo The Kingdom of Ndongo (formerly known as Angola or Dongo, also Kimbundu: ) was an early-modern African state located in the highlands between the Lukala and Kwanza Rivers, in what is now Angola. The Kingdom of Ndongo is first recorded in t ...

(as well as others who were among the

First Africans in Virginia The first Africans in Virginia were a group of "twenty and odd" captive persons originally from modern-day Angola who landed at Old Point Comfort in Hampton, Virginia in late August 1619 after their 11-week journey. Their arrival is seen as a b ...

, such as

John Graweere John Graweere also known as John Gowen (ca. 1615–living 1641) was one of the First Africans in Virginia, who was a servant who earned enough money to pay for his son's freedom. He filed a lawsuit to free his son, arguing that he wanted to raise hi ...

and Angela). No known records exist confirming his birthplace. The two first appear in a record of sale in 1640 to Captain Francis Potts; at the time, they arranged for a contract of limited indenture for their two children in service."Individual Stories- Individual Heroes"
, ''Slavery and the Making of America'', WNET, accessed 30 September 2011 The Driggus couple had other children, who were born into slavery. In 1657, Captain Potts sold two of their children, Thomas and Ann Driggus, to pay off some personal debt. Driggus was freed after the death of Potts in 1658. By then, he was a widower and had remarried, but he continued to provide for the enslaved children from his first marriage. He bequeathed a horse to his daughters Francy and Jane before he died in 1673."The Slave Experience: Family"
''Slavery and the Making of America,'' PBS, accessed 30 September 2011 His son Thomas Driggus eventually married a free Black woman; their children were born free because she was free. According to the principle of ''

partus sequitur ventrem ''Partus sequitur ventrem'' (; also ''partus'') was a legal doctrine passed in colonial Virginia in 1662 and other English crown colonies in the Americas which defined the legal status of children born there; the doctrine mandated that children ...

'', adopted into Virginia law in 1662, children born in the colony took the status of their mother. This principle, which contributed to the expansion of

chattel slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

, was widely adopted by other colonies and incorporated into state laws after the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. Over time, his descendants spelled their surname as Driggers.

References

Further reading