Emanuel Driggus information

Emanuel Driggus (b. c. 1620s-d. 1673) and his wife Frances were enslaved Atlantic Creoles in the mid-seventeenth century in the Colony of Virginia. The name Driggus is likely a corruption of the Portuguese name Rodrigues as he was born in the Kingdom of Ndongo^[1]^[2] (as were others among the First Africans in Virginia, such as John Graweere and Angela).

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.^[3] 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.^[3]

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.^[4]

His son Thomas Driggus eventually married a free Black woman; their children were born free because she was free.^[3] According to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, 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, was widely adopted by other colonies and incorporated into state laws after the American Revolutionary War.

Over time, his descendants spelled their surname as Driggers. ^[5]

^ "Emanuel Driggus".
^ "Dictionary of Virginia Biography - Emanuel Driggus Biography".
^ ^a ^b ^c "Individual Stories- Individual Heroes" Archived 2012-04-29 at the Wayback Machine, Slavery and the Making of America, WNET, accessed 30 September 2011
^ "The Slave Experience: Family", Slavery and the Making of America, PBS, accessed 30 September 2011
^ "Emanuel Driggus".

[1] "Emanuel Driggus".

[2] "Dictionary of Virginia Biography - Emanuel Driggus Biography".

[WNET-3] "Individual Stories- Individual Heroes" Archived 2012-04-29 at the Wayback Machine, Slavery and the Making of America, WNET, accessed 30 September 2011

[PBS-4] "The Slave Experience: Family", Slavery and the Making of America, PBS, accessed 30 September 2011

[5] "Emanuel Driggus".

v t e History of slavery in Virginia
Slavery in the colonial history of the United States History of Virginia
Enslaved people	Angela (fl. 1619–1625) Emanuel Driggus (c. 1620s-d. 1673) Henry Box Brown (c. 1815–1897) John Casor (living 1655) Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1797) Isabella Gibbons (c. 1836–1890) William D. Gibbons (1825–1886) John Graweere (living 1641) Elizabeth Key Grinstead (Greenstead) (1630–1665) Left, husband of Jane Webb (fl. 1704–1727) Mary and Anthony Johnson (1600–1670) Dangerfield Newby (c. 1820–1859) John Punch (fl. 1630s, living 1640) Gabriel Prosser (1776–1800) William Tucker (born 1624) Nat Turner (1800–1831) Booker T. Washington (1856–1915)
Slave owners	Presidents of the United States Washington Jefferson Madison Monroe Tyler John Armfield (1797–1871) Landon Carter (1710–1778) Robert "King" Carter (1663–1732) Robert Carter III (1728–1804), freed 450 slaves Thomas Roderick Dew (1802–1846) Andrew Hunter (1804–1888) Robert M. T. Hunter (1809–1887) Eppa Hunton Richard Bland Lee (1761–1827) William Mahone (1826–1895) George Mason (1725–1792) James M. Mason (1798–1871) John Page (1628–1692) Thomas Prosser Randolph family of Virginia William Barton Rogers (1804–1882) George Henry Thomas William Tucker (died 1642) John Wayles (1715–1773) Henry A. Wise (1806–1876)
Plantations	Beall-Air Berry Hill Brookfield Kenmore Monticello Montpelier Mount Airy Mount Vernon (enslaved people) Oatlands Poplar Forest Shirley Stratford Hall Tuckahoe Westover Woodlawn List of plantations in Virginia
Laws	Virginia laws An act concerning Servants and Slaves, 1705 Federal laws Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, 1808 Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
Slave pens	Franklin and Armfield Office Lumpkin's Jail
Related articles	The 1619 Project African American Burial Ground Atlantic Creole Burning of Winchester Medical College Coastwise slave trade First Africans in Virginia Indentured servitude in Virginia District of Columbia retrocession Gabriel's Rebellion Great Dismal Swamp maroons Human trafficking in Virginia John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Liberation and Freedom Day Memorial to Enslaved Laborers Nat Turner's Rebellion Virginia in the American Civil War Virginia v. John Brown White House of the Confederacy

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