By the 1600 they were all participating in the slave trade, English, French, Spanish. They were spreading it as they tried to expand their borders.
They called her Angela and she was one of the first women of African descent to land at Jamestown in 1619. In 1622 lived through the attack of Native Americans. In 1625 she is listed as a Negro woman living in the household of Captain William Pierce. They do not think she was an indentured servant, but was probably made to serve indefinitely.
Angela was Angolan from the Ndongo Kingdom who had been capture in her native land and taken aboard the San Juan Bautista. The ship was headed to Veracruz, Mexico but some English privateers captured it. They split the enslaved individuals and went on their way.
Angela was brought to Jamestown a ship called the Treasurer. She was captured because she has a skillset that would make the owners a profit.
Don Miguel de Castro was an ambassador from the Kingdom of Congo in the 1600s. He travelled to Europe and South America representing the interest of the Congo. He was also a cousin to the Count of Sonho, a province in Angola.
A portrait was painted of him in 1643, one of 20 commissioned. Some of which ended up in the National Gallery of Denmark.
Nzinga Mbande (c. 1583 – 1663) was Queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631–1663), located in present-day northern Angola.[1] Born into the ruling family of Ndongo, Nzinga received military and political training as a child, and she demonstrated an aptitude for defusing political crises as an ambassador to the Portuguese Empire. She later assumed power over Ndongo after the death of her father and brother, who both served as kings, and would go on to conquer Matamba. She ruled during a period of rapid growth in the African slave trade and encroachment of the Portuguese Empire into South West Africa, in attempts to control the slave trade.[2] Nzinga fought for the independence and stature of her kingdoms against the Portuguese[1] in a reign that lasted 37 years.
In the years following her death, Nzinga has become a historical figure in Angola and in the wider Atlantic Creole culture. She is remembered for her intelligence, her political and diplomatic wisdom, and her brilliant military tactics.
In 1624, Ana Nzinga inherited rule of Ndongo, a state to the east of Luanda populated primarily by Mbundu peoples. At that moment, the kingdom was under attack from both Portuguese as well as neighboring African aggressors. Nzinga realized that, to remain viable, Ndongo had to reposition itself as an intermediary rather than a supply zone in the slave trade. To achieve this, she allied Ndongo with Portugal, simultaneously acquiring a partner in its fight against its African enemies and ending Portuguese slave raiding in the kingdom.
A Fistful of Shells, Toby Green
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pwmn_2/hd_pwmn_2.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nzinga_of_Ndongo_and_Matamba
UPP Creative Media 