Gracia d'Angola

Name

Gracia d’Angola was a Black man in New Netherland.[1] His name was also spelled as Gratia Dangola or Gerasij Angola.[2]

Origin

Gracia’s name indicates he was from Angola.

Migration

Gracia d’Angola was probably one of the twenty-two Black slaves brought to New Netherland on the Bruijnvisch in 1627. Jaap Jacobs reconstructed this first arrival of enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam, and identified some of them with the group manumitted in 1644.[3] 

In 1627, ships belonging to the Zeeland chamber of the West India Company seized a Portuguese ship carrying 225 Black people. The ship had sailed from São Tomé and may have been en route to Cartagena.[4] The captured ship was leaky. The Dutch took twenty-two of the healthiest people, and let the ship continue with the rest.[5] They transferred the captives to the Bruijnvisch, which sailed via Hispaniola and the Florida coast to New Netherland. They arrived on 29 August 1627.[6]

Settlement

Gracia d’Angola lived on Manhattan, where he owned land.[7]

Biographical Details

Gracia was probably between say 15 and 25 years old in 1627, if he was one of the twenty-two healthiest people selected for continued enslavement, suggesting a birth date between say 1602 and 1612. He died between 15 December 1644 (land grant)[8] and 9 September 1656 (remarriage of widow).[9]

Marriage and Children

Gracia d’Angola was married to Maria Dangola at an unknown date before 9 September 1656. On that date, Maria Angola, widow of “Gerasy” Angola, registered her intentions to marry Christoffel Crioell from St. Thomé [São Tomé].[10] He was also called Christoffel Santomee.[11]

Gracia and Maria probably did not have any surviving children on 19 October 1667, since the confirmation of Gracia’s land patent did not mention any children, just his widow and her new husband.[12] 

Enslavement

If Gracia d’Angola was indeed brought to New Netherland on the Bruijnvisch, he was first held in bondage by the Portuguese.[13] They probably enslaved Gracia in Angola, a Portuguese colony at the time. From 1627, Gracia was enslaved by the Dutch West India Company.

In 1644, eleven Black men, including “Gracia,” petitioned the New Netherland governor for their freedom. They explained how they had served the West India Company for eighteen or nineteen years and had long been promised their freedom. In the company’s service, it would be impossible to support their families. On 25 February 1644, governor Willem Kieft granted their request. They would receive farmland to provide for their families. In return, they had to provide 30 schepel of corn annually to the company and remain available for (paid) work. Their current or future children would not be free, but would remain serfs of the West India Company.[14] Although the land patent called Gracia d’Angola a “free Negroe,”[15] the imposed conditions indicate it was rather a half-freedom—with more rights than enslaved people, but fewer than free colonists.

In 1650, the New Netherland committee explained that the freed slaves had been confiscated from the Spanish and had served the West India Company for a long time before their eventual emancipation. Of all the children, only three were still being used as slaves.[16] Apart from the nationality of the ship that first transported the slaves, this explanation matches Jacobs’s argument that the manumitted slaves were part of the human cargo transported on the Bruijnvisch. The 1650 committee report and the 1644 book documenting the capture were created years after the 1627 capture,[17] so minor discrepancies are to be expected.

Occupation

The West India Company exploited Gracia’s labor between 1627, when he probably arrived, and 1644, when he was manumitted. After obtaining his freedom, he still had to be available to work for the company, for a wage.[18] Laborers enslaved by the West India Company were tasked with building Fort Amsterdam (completed in 1635), cutting timber and firewood, clearing land, burning lime, and gathering the harvest.[19] 

Holdings and Estate

On 15 December 1644 New Netherland governor Willem Kieft granted land to Gratia Dangola. The land, located on Manhattan, was about ten acres (five morgen and 590 rods) large. It stretched from the land belonging to Cleijn Manuell to that of Marijcke east-south-east, then south-south-east toward the land of Pieter Tamboer, twenty rods on both sides. It went along the land of Jan Francisco and Pieter Tamboer for 51 rods, and then west-south-west toward a valley or meadow for 37 rods. Then it went 40 rods north-north-west along Old Jan’s land [Jan Celes], to the land of Cleijn Antony, and 65 rods north-north-east along Antonij’s land back to the first point.[20]

English governor Richard Nicolls confirmed the Dutch patent on 19 October 1667. Since Gracia had died by then, the land had gone to his widow Maria Dangola, by then remarried to Christoffel Santomee.[21] 

Associations

Gracia d’Angola was part of a group of Black men that appear in several records together. Gracia Dangola was accused of Jan Premero’s murder along with Paulo d’Angola, Jan of Fort Orange, Manuel de Gerrit de Reus, Anthonij de Portugees, Manuel Minuit, Simon Congo and Groote Manuel.[22] Most of these men were among those that requested manumission in 1644 alongside Gracia: Paulo Angolo, Groot [Big] Manuel, Cleijn [Small] Manuel, Manuel de Gerrit de Reus, Sijmon Congo, Antonij Portugis, Piter Santomee, Jan Francisco, Cleijn [Small] Antonij, Jan Fort Orange.[23] 

Additional Details

On 17 January 1641, Gracia d’Angola was one of nine Black men accused of killing Jan Premero, also a Black man. The men confessed to killing Premero on 6 January 1641 in the woods behind their houses, but did not say who had dealt the final blow. The New Netherland Council decided to draw lots instead of convicting everyone. Manuel de Gerrit de Reus was selected and sentenced to death, though he was later pardoned after a failed execution. Gracia d’Angola and the other seven men were acquitted.[24]

Literature

Christoph, Peter R. “The Freedmen of New Amsterdam.” In A Beautiful and Fruitful Place: Selected Rensselaerswijck Seminar Papers, edited by Nancy Anne McClure Zeller, 157–70. New Netherland Publishing, 1991.

Jacobs, Jaap. “The First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam.” New York History 104 (Summer 2023): 96–114. https://doi.org/10.1353/nyh.2023.a902905. Although the article does not name the twenty-two enslaved Africans, it provides insights into the likely circumstances of Gracia’s arrival in New Netherland.

_____.  “Van Angola Naar Manhattan: Slavernij in Nieuw-Nederland in de Zeventiende Eeuw.” In Daalder, Remmert, Dirk J. Tang, and Leo Balai, eds. Slaven En Schepen in Het Atlantisch Gebied, 75–80. Leiden, Netherlands: Primavera, 2013.

Mosterman, Andrea C. Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 2021. Pages 13, 26, 43.

Phelps Stokes, Isaac Newton. 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. 6 vols. New York City, New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1928. Vol 6:75 lists the grant to Gratia d’Angola and the subsequent owners of the plot. A map titled “Franklin Street to 23d Street” between pages 64-i and 67-a locates the grant to Gratia Dangola in Manhattan, between West Houston and Spring Street and between Sullivan and Greene Street.

Riker, David M. Genealogical and Biographical Directory to Persons in New Netherland, from 1613 to 1674. Vol. 1. Higginson Book Company, 1999. Includes an entry for Christoffel Crioell (alphabetized as Criell) that mentions his wife Maria Angola and her late husband Gerasy Angola.

Romney, Susanah Shaw. New Netherland Connections: Intimate Networks and Atlantic Ties in Seventeenth-Century America. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2014. Page 191.

Swan, Robert J. “First Africans into New Netherland, 1625 or 1626?” Halve Maen 66 (Winter 1993): 75–82. Criticizes the assumption that the Black people manumitted in 1644 arrived as a group because their names indicate different origins. However, the subsequent article by Jaap Jacobs (see above) shows that they were transported on a ship from São Tomé, not directly from Africa, which explains their diverse backgrounds.

Source Editions

Dickenson, Richard. “Abstracts of Early Black Manhattanites.” New York Genealogical & Biographical Record 116 (April 1985): 100–104.

Scott, Kenneth, and Kenn Stryker-Rodda, eds. Council Minutes, 1638–1649. Translated by A.J.F. Van Laer. Vol. IV. New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1974. Pages 97–100, 212–13.

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. Gracia d’Angola is mentioned on page 494 (deceased husband).

Citations

[1] Fiscal vs. Cleijn Antonio and others, 17 January 1641, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 83; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11480), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p083; citing series A1809, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.

[2] Confirmation of patent to Gratia Dangola, 15 December 1644, confirmed 19 October 1667, in Richard Nicolls, governor (New York), letters patent, vol. 2, p. 131; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/88137), identifier NYSA_12943-78_V02_p131-132; citing series 12943-78, Department of State, Bureau of Miscellaneous Records, New York State Archives, Albany, New York. Also, Marriage intentions of Christoffel Crioell and Maria Angola, 9 September 1656, in Dutch Reformed Church (New Amsterdam), Liber A, marriage register, 1639–1701, p. 594; 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 483 of 1410.

[3] Jaap Jacobs, “The First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam,” New York History 104, no. 1 (Summer 2023): 96–114, https://doi.org/10.1353/nyh.2023.a902905.

[4] Jacobs, “The First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam.”

[5] Joannes de Laet, Historie ofte iaerlyck verhael van de verrichtinghen der geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie, zedert haer begin, tot het eynde van ’t jaer sesthien-hondert ses-en-dertich; begrepen in derthien boecken, ende met verscheyden koperen platen verciert: beschreven door Ioannes de Laet . . . (Elzevir, Bonaventura & Abraham, 1644), 117.

[6] De Laet, Historie often iaerlyck verhael, 119.

[7] Confirmation of patent to Gratia Dangola, 15 December 1644, confirmed 19 October 1667.

[8] Confirmation of patent to Gratia Dangola, 15 December 1644, confirmed 19 October 1667.

[9] Marriage intentions of Christoffel Crioell and Maria Angola, 9 September 1656.

[10] Marriage intentions of Christoffel Crioell and Maria Angola, 9 September 1656.

[11] Confirmation of patent to Gratia Dangola, 15 December 1644, confirmed 19 October 1667.

[12] Confirmation of patent to Gratia Dangola, 15 December 1644, confirmed 19 October 1667.

[13] Jacobs, “The First Arrival of Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam.”

[14] Manumission of eleven black men, 25 February 1644, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 183–84; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11580), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p183-184.

[15] Confirmation of patent to Gratia Dangola, 15 December 1644, confirmed 19 October 1667.

[16] New Netherland committee, reply to the remonstrance about situation in New Netherland, 31 January 1650, article 43, in States-General, records regarding the situation in New-Netherland, in particular the position of patroons and population, 1649–1650; call no. 12564.30A, Record Group 1.01.02: Archief van de Staten-Generaal [Records of the States-General], Nationaal Archief, The Hague, Netherlands; scans supplied by Nationaal Archief.

[17] De Laet, Historie often iaerlyck verhael, 119.

[18] Manumission of eleven black men, 25 February 1644.

[19] “Deposition of Jacob Stoffelsen, overseer of Negroes, as to the employment of said Negroes during the administration of Wouter van Twiller,” Kenneth Scott and Kenn Stryker-Rodda, eds., Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1638–1642, trans. Arnold J. F Van Laer, vol. 1 (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1974), 112–13.

[20] Confirmation of patent to Gratia Dangola, 15 December 1644, confirmed 19 October 1667.

[21] Confirmation of patent to Gratia Dangola, 15 December 1644, confirmed 19 October 1667.

[22] Fiscal vs. Cleijn Antonio and others, 17 January 1641.

[23] Manumission of eleven black men, 25 February 1644.

[24] Fiscal vs. Cleijn Antonio and others, 17 January 1641. Sentence of Cleijn Antonio and others, 24 January 1641, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 84; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11481), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p083; citing series A1809, New York State Archives. For Manuel de Gerrit de Reus’s pardon, see description of Manuel de Gerrit de Reus’s execution and pardon, 24 January 1641 in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 4, 1638–1649, p. 85; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11482), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V04_p085.

---

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.