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).
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] 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.