Domingo van Angola

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Domingo van Angola was part of the settlement of the Dutch Cape Colony. Join: Cape of Good Hope - Kaap de Goede Hoop (1652-1806) Project Discuss: dutch_cape_colony

Biography

Domingo van Angola was a male slave in the household of Jan van Riebeeck, probably acquired in March 1658 (see below). Prior to Jan van Riebeeck's departure from the Cape, Domingo was sold, together with Jan van Angola (abt.1650-), Thomas van Angola (abt.1650-) & Claesje van Angola (abt.1650-) to the secunde Roelf de Man, on 20 April 1662.

Mansell Upham has researched the First fifty years of the Cape extensively and according to him: ^[1]

The more brutal aspects of collective slave labour started with the arrival of the ship Amersfoort (March 1658). This ship offloaded a cargo of slaves, Brazil-bound, captured from the Portuguese off the coast of Angola (sometime in January 1658). Of the original cargo of 500 slaves, 250 were taken onto the Amersfoort of which many died before the ship arrived at the Cape. Van Riebeeck first counts 170 survivors (but first reported 166 and then 174) of which many were ill. The majority are young boys and girls who are considered to be of little use to the settlement for the next 4 or 5 years. Instructed to send the best of the shipment to Batavia, Van Riebeeck complies, sending 92 slaves in different shipments. By April he is left with 125 slaves from Angola, but their number rapidly diminishes with some dying on a daily basis.

On 6 May 1658 a further cargo of 228 (of the original 271 slaves) were obtained from `Guinea` (actually at Grand Popo on the coast of Dahomey, now Benin). They were offloaded at the Cape by the ship Hasselt. Of these, no fewer than 80 are sent to Batavia.

The remaining `Angola` and `Guinea` slaves are employed by the Company, while 55 slaves from `Guinea` and 25 from `Angola` are sold to the free-burghers and Company officials in their private capacities.

Significantly, and perhaps conveniently for Van Riebeeck, his officials and predominantly wifeless / womenless free-burghers, no individual registrations for the sale/purchase of these slaves appear to survive. The death rate appears to be horrific and together with the absconding of some, their numbers dwindled considerably.

By 1663 we learn that notwithstanding the 402 `Angola` and `Guinea` slaves that had been brought to the Cape (1658), there remain all told (including 6 Malagasy and 2 `Bengal` slaves) only 82 individuals: men, women and children - both Company owned and privately owned.

The circumstances of slaves brought in en masse are quite different to those initial `Bengal`, Malagasy and `Abyssinian` slaves brought to the Cape as personal slaves or allowed to become such once there.

Research Notes

According to researcher, Anna Böeseken, ^[2] Angela van Bengale (abt.1644-1720) is concubine or de facto wife of one Domingo who is father to her 3 children and that the family had been sold together by Pieter Kemp in 1655. Mansell Upham ^[3] rejects this and argues that nothing in the records that he has searched substantiate such a claim. Maaij Ansela does not arrive at the Cape with 3 children, and she only arrives in the Cape and is sold by Pieter Kemp in 1657. Domingo is a fellow female slave according to the muster roll (Dominga would normally be the female version of this name). Pieter Kemp sells 2 female slaves from Bengal to Van Riebeeck in a private transaction. The 2 women are Maaij Ansela van Bengale & Elisabeth (Lijsbeth) van Bengale (aka Domingo). The three children in question were: Claesje van Angola (abt.1650-), Jan van Angola (abt.1650-), and Thomas van Angola (abt.1650-).

Sources

1. ↑ "Respectability Regained, Moeder Jagt`s truimphant reversal of her slave past. Mansell Upham's article on Angela of Bengal and other slaves in the early Cape" Seen and entered by Anton Bergh on 6 Feb 2022
2. ↑ "Böeseken, Slaves and Free Blacks 1658-1700, pp. 9, 65 & 79)." Seen and entered by Anton Bergh on 6 Feb 2022
3. ↑ "see pages 8-9 of Respectability Regained – Moeder Jagt`s truimphant reversal of her slave past" Seen and entered by Anton Bergh on 6 Feb 2022

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Domingo-6 created through the import of Haye-1_2011-08-17.ged on Aug 17, 2011 by Jesse Haye.