Mathijs van Angola1
M, #13907, b. circa 1638
Last Edited | 27/02/2016 |
BirthOrigin* | Mathijs was from Angola and was perhaps born there circa 1638. The date is estimated.1 |
(Slave) ShipVoyage | On 14 October 1657 the Amersfoort departed Vlie enroute to de Caep de Goede Hoop where it docked on 28 March 1658. With more than half the journey completed, on 23 January 1658, probably off the coast of Angola, the Amersfoort sighted a Portuguese slaver with 500 slaves on board. After a 24-hour chase, the vessel was captured, and 250 slaves were taken aboard the Amersfoort for the journey to the Cape. The crippled Portuguese vessel was abandoned to whatever fate might befall her, 250 slaves and her crew. Of those, when the Amersfoort heaved to in Table Bay two months later, only 174 had made it alive, most them, according to Jan van Riebeeck "girls and small boys" - among them were Mathijs van Angola.2,3,4 |
Slave Transactions | After 18 June 1668 Claas Gerrits van Bengale, Mathijs van Angola, Anthonij Jansz van Bengale, Andries van der Kust Coromandel, Jeronimus van Coromandel, Titus van Bengale and Baddou van Bali were sold by departing Commandeur Cornelis van Quaelbergen to his successor Jacob van Borghorst. The price paid was f 1 680.5 On 31 December 1669 Andries van der Kust Coromandel, Claas Gerrits van Bengale, Mathijs van Angola, Anthonij Jansz van Bengale, Jeronimus van Coromandel, Titus van Bengale, Baddou van Bali, Ventura van Ceylon, Claesje van Angola, Abraham van Guinea, Maria da Costa van Bengale and Lysbeth van Bengale were sold by the departing commander Jacob van Borghorst to the Company for f 2 842:10:-, the amount he had originally paid for them. Included in the sale were three children, who, because they fit the profile, I have for the present presumed to be Lysbeth van de Caep, Anna Pieters and Anthonij van de Caep; the first the child of Pollecij/Maaij Claesje van Angola and the third and fourth the daughter and son of Lijsbeth van Bengale. However, at least some of these slaves came into the possession of Joan Bax van Herentals, Borghorst's successor.6 |
Slaves owned by individuals | Between 6 May 1658 and 18 September 1659 Mathijs van Angola was owned by Johan Anthoniszoon van Riebeeck.1 |
Citations
- [S676] Attestation, C2391; Council of Policy, 4 September1652-6 February 1660, Western Cape Archives and Records Service as transcribed and annotated by Mansell Upham, Guinees
Dirck ende Dirckie [Hoewj/Hoen(a)/Anna]
Angools
Hier onder heeft den Commandeur een Angools [Marij Pekenijn] tegen een Madagascarsz slavin [Eva van Madagascar] die per abujis onder d'Angoolse na Bat:a[via] gesonden is
Mathijs en: Marselij [Claesje?]
Domingo en: Francyn
Tomas Keuken ende Marij
Klaes Kelder
Jan Meeu en: Marij Pekenijn
Jackie Joij
Ouwe Jan en Isabel [Maaij Isabella?]
Meijndert van Antongil becoming van den Coopman Cops
Marij van Bengale [Maria da Costa] door Jacob Reijniersz op Batavia laten coopen aen de heer gesonden
Domingo [sic Elisabeth van Bengale] ende van d'heer Kemp hier aen de Caep becomen
Angela [Maaij Ans(i)ela van Bengale] van ditto [Batavia]
Eva en haer soontie voor S:[ieu]r Verburgh op Madagascar voor den Commande:[u]r gecoght sijnde dese Eva per abuijs onder d'Angoolse slavinnen na Batavia gesonden als hier voren aengeseijen
Jan Bruijn
Cleijn Eva door den Coningh van Antongil aen der Commande:[u]rs vrou tot vereeringh gesonden
Cornelia ende
Lijsbeth van Abissina door den Fransen admiral Lacrox aen den Commande:[u]rs vrouw vereert
[Note in margin about the last 5 slaves]
dese 5 lijfeijgenen sijn deur Comp:[agni]e goedt gedaen onder dato 2en Maij a:[nn]o 1657
Welcke 2 laeste door ordre van d'e:[del]e h:[ee]r Van Goens den overleden onder coopman Verburghs huijsvrou ende den sieckentroost:[er]r ter Van der Staels vrou elck een provisioneel tot haar dienst sijn geleendt van allen t' welcke wij onder geschreven raedts personen des forts de Goede Hoop bij dese oirconde wil connen kennisse ende wetenschap te hebben ende volgens desen en please van acto in forma onderteijkent
Actum in't Fort voorsz: desen 1en September a:[nno] 1659
[signed] Roeloff de Man
Van alle 't bovenstaande, ick ondergeschreven verclaer, mede kennisse te hebben, excepto van Marij van Bengale, Eva ende Jan Bruijn haer soontjen, die voor mijn arrivement alhier aen de Caep geweest t' sijn: doch wel uijt den monde van andere gehoort, datse gelijck boven verhoedt gecoght, ende also hier gecomen waren.
[signed] Abraham Gabbema. - [S665] Mansell Upham 'Johanna Kemp - An enquiry into the ancestry of the Cape-born Johanna Kemp (c. 1689-1778) - wife of Jacob Krüger (from Sadenbeck)', First Fifty Years, Uprooted Lives - Unfurling the Cape of Good Hope's Earliest Colonial Inhabitants (1652-1713), (This article is under review), March 2012. "This was followed by the arrival of the Amersfoort (March 1658) offloading a cargo of mostly Brazil-bound Angola slave children (170 of whom 125 were not sent to Batavia) captured from the Portuguese off the coast of Brazil (sometime in January 1658)..."
- [S646] Precis of the archives of the Cape of Good Hope, JVR Journal II, 1656-1658, H.C.V. Leibrandt; (Cape Town, South Africa: W. A. Richards & Sons, Government Printers, Castle Street, 1897), p.113; March 28th. N. W. breeze. The Amersfoort casts anchor; had 323 men on her, 29 dead and 30 sick. The weakest brought on shore and exchanged for others. Was provided with refreshments for the crew and the slaves who were brought on shore, already reduced to 170 in number. Many of them still very ill; most of them girls and small boys, from whom for the next 4 or 5 years very little can be got.. Hereinafter cited as Precis of the archives, JVR Journal II 1656-1658.
- [S522] André van Rensburg, "Capensis (The Amersfoort)," October 2000. Hereinafter cited as "The Amersfoort."
- [S418] Anna J. Böeseken, Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700 (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1977), p.30 When Cornelis van Quaelbergen left, he sold seven of his slaves to his successor Jacob Borghorst for f 1 680. Five of these slaves, Claes [Gerritsz: van Bengale -6980], Mathijs [van Angola - 13907], Anthonij [Jansz van Bengale - 5747], Andries [17551] and Jeronimus [Jeremias van Coromandel - 15346] came from the Coast of Coromandel; one named Tita [Titus van Bengale - 9454] came from Bengal and the seventh slave is described as "een Maleijer gent. Barru" [Baddu/Baddou van Bali - 15345]. Hereinafter cited as Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700.
- [S788] Webpage Tanap (http://databases.tanap.net/) "Reference code: C. 5, pp. 89-91.
Dingsdagh den 31en December ao. 1669."