Introducing Angela

“History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.”

- James Baldwin

You might see our school's name, and wonder who is Angela? She is the founding mother of our nation and one of the few first enslaved Africans whose name we know. Angela, like many who came after her, was kidnapped from her home and taken from her family. Her life sacrificed through the pillage of her body so that the inheritors of this country could reap untold riches and develop the nation you see today. Without Angela, that would not have been possible. Angela is an individual but also a symbol of what was lost, what was taken, and the over three hundred thousand enslaved Africans brought to North America during the period of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the lives they left behind, and the future their toil built.

In the year 1619, Angela was taken from her home in Luanda, present day Angola, along with 349 other souls. Her home, part of the Ndongo kingdom, was one of the most powerful kingdoms in Central Africa at the time. Before she was brought here, she had a rich and fulfilling life. But that changed when she was captured by the Portuguese, and christened Angela.  While on board a Portuguese slave ship, she and the other souls on board were captured by an English owned ship and brought to the North American English colonies.

 Angela was a person first like those who came with her and those who came after. A person with parents, brothers and sisters, partners, and children. She was taken from the only home she and those she symbolizes knew, “christened” a new name and packed on a ship like livestock to be traded.  When the ship arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, only 207 souls were still alive. Angela was sold as property to William Pierce and survived despite the hardships she endured. The records verifying her life and existence do not extend beyond 1625, so we do not know what became of her life. But there is one thing of which we are certain. This is her house. This nation is the house that Angela built. And we should never forget.