Name
She was called “Anna van Angola” in the marriage record for her second marriage in 1642.[1] In February 1647 she was called “Anna Negrinne” [Anna Negress], indicating she was a Black woman.[2] “Van Angola” and “Negrinne” were not hereditary last names, but served as identifiers to distinguish her from other women named Anna.
Origin
Anna was originally from Angola, as indicated by the “Van Angola” [from Angola] following her first name in her 1642 marriage record.[3]
Migration
Anna van Angola’s race and origins suggest she was transported to New Netherland in bondage. She was in New Netherland by 28 September 1642.[4]
Settlement
Anna van Angola lived in the “negroes’ plantation,”[5] a community of free Black people just north of New Amsterdam.[6] She married in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam and had a child baptized there.[7]
Biographical Details
Anna van Angola was born between say 1600 (maximum age 45 at birth of child) and 1626 (minimum age 16 at second marriage), probably in Angola. She died after 11 April 1684, when she sold land.[8]
Marriage and Children
Anna first married Francisco van Capo Verde [from Cape Verde]. Their different origins suggest they met and married in the Americas. Anna van Angola, widow of Francisco van Capo Verde, and Andries van Angola, a “neger” [Black man], registered their marriage intentions at the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam on 28 September 1642.[9] Andries van Angola died before 8 February 1647, when Anna was called his widow.[10]
Anna van Angola had one known child, with Andries van Angola:
- Trijntje, daughter of Andries van Angola, baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam on 5 February 1645. Witnesses: Pieter van Camp, Marie Anthonij.[11]
Enslavement
As a Black woman in New Netherland by 1642, Anna probably was enslaved at some point in her life. The 1647 land grant of land to Anna implies she had achieved a half-free or free status by then, though Anna and her husband were not mentioned in the manumissions recorded before 1647.[12] The New York provincial government considered her a free woman on 19 October 1667, when the governor confirmed the patent to “Anna a free Negrine.”[13] “Anna a free Negrine widdow of Andrew D Angola” sold land in 1684.[14]
Holdings and Estate
Anna was among the first Black women to own land in North America. On 8 February 1647, Anna Negrinne [Black woman], the widow of Andries d’Angola, received a patent for 3 morgens and 2 rods of land on Manhattan Island. The land lay between Pieter Tamboer’s land on the front, Touchyn Briel’s land to the rear, and measured east by east 51 rods; north 30 rods; north [by] north west 54 rods; north east and north east by east 41 rods.[15] The governor of New York confirmed the Dutch patent to Anna on 19 October 1667.[16] On 11 April 1684, Claes Manuell, as attorney for Anna Negrine, sold the property to Jacob Stille. The land was located in the “negroes’ plantation,” near the highway on Manhattan Island.[17]
Church Membership
Anna van Angola married and had a child baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam.[18] She does not appear in the lists of confessed members of that church.[19]
Associations
Support New Netherland Settlers
Help us support New Netherland Settlers and further more research and additional sketches.
Do you have a New Netherland ancestor that should be included or other information to contribute to the initiative? Please email development@nygbs.org with the subject line "NNS Information," and we will follow up with you.
Anna van Angola associated with several people in New Amsterdam’s Black community. When Andries and Anna van Angola’s daughter Trijntie was baptized, they chose Pieter van Camp and Marie Anthonij as witnesses.[20] Pieter van Camp(en), also known as Pieter Tamboer,[21] owned land next to the land Anna received in 1647. Marie Anthonij later married Anthonij Mattheuszen. They were both Black.[22]
On 11 April 1684, Anna van Angola chose Claes Manuel to represent her when she sold land.[23] He was a son of Emanuel van Angola, who had a similar background as Anna van Angola’s.[24]
Literature
Christoph, Peter R. “The Freedman of New Amsterdam.,” in A Beautiful and Fruitful Place: Selected Rensselaerswijck Seminar Papers. E, ed. Nancy Anne McClure Zeller. New Netherland Publishing, 1991. pp. 157–70. This chapter mentions Anna van Angola in the context of other freed slaves who were granted land.
Gehring, Charles T., ed. Land Papers, Volumes GG, HH & II, 1630–1664. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1980. p. 48. Translation of patent to “Anna Negerinna.”
Phelps Stokes, I. N. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909: Compiled from Original Sources and Illustrated by Photo-Intaglio Reproductions of Important Maps, Plans, Views, and Documents in Public and Private Collections. V, vol. 6. New York City, New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1928. p. 100. A reconstruction of land ownership over time of the land granted to Black residents includes the patent for Anna’s land. This book mistakenly dated the sale of Anna van Angola’s land to 1654 rather than 1684.
Romney, Susanah Shaw. New Netherland Connections: Intimate Networks and Atlantic Ties in Seventeenth-Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014. p. 209. Romney discusses Anna van Angola in the context of the ties between the African community and others in the colony of New Netherland.
Sivertsen, Karen. “Babel on the Hudson: Community Formation in Dutch Manhattan.” PhD diss., Duke University, 2007. pp. 82–105. https://hdl.handle.net/10161/199. The chapter “Anna van Angola’s Heritage” uses contextual sources including Middle Passage accounts to infer what Anna would have endured as an enslaved woman brought to New Netherland.
Sypher, Francis J., ed. Liber A of the Collegiate Churches of New York, Part 2: Baptisms 1639 to 1697, Members 1649 to 1701, Marriages 1639 to 1701. Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2015. pp. 25, 474. Transcriptions of the baptismal and marriage records.
Citations
[1] Marriage intentions of Andries van Angola and Anna van Angola, 28 September 1642, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, marriage register, 1639–1701, p. 574; imaged, “U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639–1989,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6961) > New York > Manhattan > Collegiate Church … > image 465 of 1410; citing The Archives of the Reformed Church in America, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
[2] Patent to Anna Negrinne, 8 February 1647, in New Netherland Colonial Council, patents and deeds, vol. GG, 1630–1651, p. 169; imaged, New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/51268), identifier NYSA_A1880-78_VGG_0169; citing series A1880-78, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.
[3] Marriage intentions of Andries van Angola and Anna van Angola, 28 September 1642.
[4] Marriage intentions of Andries van Angola and Anna van Angola, 28 September 1642.
[5] Stille conveyance to Bastiansen, 23 December 1696, citing D’Angola conveyance to Stille, 11 April 1684, in New York City, New York, conveyances, 21:143; digital film 7178079, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9W5-GRXQ), image 295; citing Register’s Office, New York County, New York.
[6] For the location of the plantation where free Black people lived see Andrea C. Mosterman, Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 2021), 50–51.
[7] Marriage intentions of Andries van Angola and Anna van Angola, 28 September 1642. Baptism of Trijntje van Angola, 5 February 1645, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, baptismal register 1639–1697, p. 263; imaged, “U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639–1989,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6961) > New York > Manhattan > Collegiate Church … > image no. 163 of 1410.
[8] Stille conveyance to Bastiansen, 23 December 1696, citing D’Angola conveyance to Stille, 11 April 1684.
[9] Marriage intentions of Andries van Angola and Anna van Angola, 28 September 1642.
[10] Patent to Anna Negrinne, 8 February 1647.
[11] Baptism of Trijntje van Angola, 5 February 1645.
[12] Kenneth Scott and Kenn Stryker-Rodda, eds., Council Minutes, 1638–1649, trans. A.J.F. Van Laer, New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, vol. IV (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1974).
[13] Confirmation of patent to “Anna, a free Negrine, widdow of Andries d’Angola,” 19 October 1667, in New York (State), letters patent, vol. 2, p. 126; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/88128), identifier NYSA_12943-78_V02_p126; citing series 12943-78, Department of State, Bureau of Miscellaneous Records, New York State Archives.
[14] Stille conveyance to Bastiansen, 23 December 1696, citing D’Angola conveyance to Stille, 11 April 1684.
[15] Patent to Anna Negrinne, 8 February 1647.
[16] Confirmation of patent to “Anna, a free Negrine, widdow of Andries d’Angola,” 19 October 1667.
[17] Stille conveyance to Bastiansen, 23 December 1696, citing D’Angola conveyance to Stille, 11 April 1684.
[18] Marriage intentions of Andries van Angola and Anna van Angola, 28 September 1642. Also, baptism of Trijntje van Angola, 5 February 1645.
[19] Francis J. Sypher, ed., Liber A of the Collegiate Churches of New York, Part 2: Baptisms 1639 to 1697, Members 1649 to 1701, Marriages 1639 to 1701, Historical Series of the Reformed Church in America (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2015).
[20] Baptism of Trijntje van Angola, 5 February 1645.
[21] I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909: Compiled from Original Sources and Illustrated by Photo-Intaglio Reproductions of Important Maps, Plans, Views, and Documents in Public and Private Collections, vol. 6 (New York City, New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1928), 74.
[22] Marriage intentions of Anthonij Mattheuszen and Maria Anthonij, 1 February 1654, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, p. 589; imaged, “U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639–1989,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6961) > New York > Manhattan > Collegiate Church … > image 478 of 1410.
[23] Stille conveyance to Bastiansen, 23 December 1696, referencing D’Angola conveyance to Stille, 11 April 1684.
[24] Henry B. Hoff, “Researching African-American Families in New Netherland and Colonial New York and New Jersey,” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 136, no. 2 (April 2005): 109–16 (p. 92).
New Netherland Settlers is made possible by donations from organizations and individuals. For more information on how to support the project, email development@nygbs.org.