Atlantic Creoles

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Atlantic Creoles is a term used to describe people of predominately Congolese and Angolan heritage in Africa, the Americas, and Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries who also had ancestral or cultural ties to Europe. Some of these people, from mixed race cosmopolitan communities in West African trading centers, were transported from Africa as the 'Charter Generation' of enslaved people during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Historians have noted that their exposure to different cultures gave them expert abilities in trading, negotiating and interpreting; and many who arrived in their new homelands as enslaved people managed to win their freedom. Examples of Atlantic Creoles in Colonial America included Anthony Johnson, John Punch and Emanuel Driggus (his surname was possibly derived from Rodriguez). The original Atlantic Creoles of Colonial America eventually assimilated into Black, White, Native and Creole communities in the United States. In Latin America and the Caribbean, they influenced...

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