Ana Gallum

Ana Gallum (circa 1755 – 1840), also referred to as Nansi Wiggins, was a Senegalese woman who was enslaved in Florida, eventually becoming an enslaving planter herself.

She was kidnapped from her homeland and brought to the Americas as a bondsperson. The beginning of her story is similar to millions of other Africans who fell victim to the Atlantic slave trade and were subjected to the Middle Passage. Gallum's life, however, was different from most of them. She was freed after serving as a bondswoman for a short period, marrying her former enslaver ― an English-born planter ― and had six children with him. As a widow, Gallum would ultimately inherit and enslave numerous people herself, as well as own and operate a plantation in what was then Spanish Florida. Dr. Jane Landers, a historian and the leading researcher on Gallum, summarizes the life of Gallum: "Ana suffered rape and hardships on the Florida frontier, but was able to utilize legal and social resources in the Spanish world that enabled her to establish security".

Early life

There is little known about Ana Gallum's early life due to a severe lack of documentation. What is known is that she was born in approximately 1755 in Senegal, Africa, where she was kidnapped at a young age and sold to the Scottish trading firm, Panton, Leslie & Company. Once aboard a slave ship, she survived the perilous Middle Passage journey and was brought into St. Augustine, Florida. Once she arrived, she was sold to an English-born planter, Joseph "Job" Wiggins. After some time together, the two married in a Protestant ceremony in 1781. However, because the two chose to marry outside of the Catholic Church, Spanish officials did not recognize the marriage as the Catholic church did not sanctify it. Regardless, they carried on with their lives, and Gallum eventually used her marriage as a stepping stone to rise from being an average plantation worker to becoming a plantation mistress. Now known as Palatka, the city was held by the British from 1763 to 1784, at which time it was ceded to the Spanish as part of the 1783 Treaty of Paris. As mentioned in "Early life", research suggests that Gallum was born sometime in 1755. Using her estimated birth year, it can be concluded that her age was approximately 85 at the time of her death.

Legacy

Gallum spent most of her life a free woman in the Spanish colonies, enjoying the citizenship and rights afforded to many other women living under Spanish rule. This also allowed her to secure a far better life for her children. Her eldest son Benjamin became a translator on behalf of the local Indigenous tribes, spending time among the Seminoles and eventually marrying the daughter of prominent mixed-race planter and rancher, Felipe Edinborough. Her eldest daughter ― Beatriz ― married a mixed race man named Charles W. Clarke, the younger brother of prominent social and political figure George J.F. Clarke. Beatriz had six children with Clarke between 1799 and 1812. Eventually, Clarke and Beatrice, whom he often called "Patty" or "Particia", followed his brother and his family to Fernandina, Amelia Island, where they achieved a much better social status as freed Black people under Spanish rule.

Another daughter of Gallum ㅡ Abigail Juana, called "Jennie" ㅡ also journeyed to Fernandina, where she and several of Gallum's other children were able to become landowners, most of them disappearing from historical record and fully integrating with white society. Gallum herself moved to Fernandina from Palatka in 1811 after losing the Wiggins' plantation due to a lack of agricultural development on the land and purchased three lots of property for herself and her youngest son, Pedro Cassaly II.