Margaret Cornish

Margaret Cornish (Portuguese: ; – living 1670) was a woman from the Kingdom of Ndongo (part of now Angola), who was one of the First Africans in Virginia. She was party to the first legal case regarding a Black person in the Colony of Virginia. Due to her early documentation, she is of relevance to academics studying African-American genealogy. A historical fiction trilogy, Fate & Freedom, narrates her life as a slave in the colony.

Biography Margaret (originally ) was born in the Kingdom of Ndongo (now Angola), around 1610, and was later baptized a Catholic. She was taken as a slave by the , which was plundered by the two privateer ships, the White Lion and the Treasurer, the former of which brought her to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. By 1625, she came to be owned by Robert Sheppard, an English planter and Burgess for James City County. In 1630, she was convicted of fornication after having sex with Hugh Davis, an Englishman; he himself was whipped in front of a crowd as punishment.

Marriage to John Graweere During her time as a slave in Virginia, she married John Graweere, and had a child with him in 1635. The Sweat (Sweet), Cornish, and Gowen families descended from Margaret intermarried with other free Tidewater Virginia families such as the Driggers family descended from Emanuel Driggus. Their surnames are now carried by Melungeons, such as those with the surname Goins, whom are descended directly from Margaret and Graweere.