Emanuel Driggus

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 may have been born in the Kingdom of Ndongo ^{[1] [2]} (as well as others who were among the First Africans in Virginia, such as John Graweere 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. ^[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] According to geneaological analysis by Paul Heinegg, Driggus is one of the progenitors of the Lumbee people via his free Black descendants. ^{[6] [7]}

References

1. "Emanuel Driggus".
2. "Dictionary of Virginia Biography - Emanuel Driggus Biography".
3. "Individual Stories- Individual Heroes" Archived 2012-04-29 at the Wayback Machine , Slavery and the Making of America, WNET, accessed 30 September 2011
4. "The Slave Experience: Family", Slavery and the Making of America, PBS, accessed 30 September 2011
5. "Emanuel Driggus".
6. Lowery, Malinda Maynor (2018). The Lumbee Indians An American Struggle. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. p. 35. ISBN   9781469646381 . Retrieved December 24, 2025. Families named Driggers, Bones, Jacobs, Quick, Swett, Cooper—all founding Lumbee families—had been living in that same area when new English settlers moved in.
7. Heinegg, Paul (2001). Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina From the Colonial Period to About 1820 4th Edition. Vol. I. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co. pp. 331–338. ISBN   0-8063-5110-1 . Retrieved December 24, 2025. Emmanuel Driggers, "Negroe," born perhaps 1620, was the slave of Francis Pott on his plantation in Magotha Bay, Northampton County, Virginia. On 27 May 1645 when American slavery had not yet fully developed, he purchased a cow and calf from Pott and recorded the sale in the Northampton County Court [DW 1645-51, 82]. He and his wife Frances were assigned as servants to Stephen Charlton in 1649 to pay Pott's debt to Charlton. [...] William, born say 1737, purchased land in Cumberland County, North Carolina, by deed proved on 17 October 1759 and sold land in Cumberland County by deed proved five years later in May Court 1764 [Minutes 1759-65, 54, 103]. His improvements on Gum Swamp east of Drowning Creek were mentioned in a 22 July 1769 Bladen County deed [DB:91]

Further reading

• Douglas Deal, Race and Class in Colonial Virginia, (Garland, 1993)