The Cumbo Family: Tracing one of the First African descended families in America
This is an ancestral story of an African man and woman's resilience and agency over bondage to build a free life for their son and future generations.
Tag: Jamestown
Emanuell Cumbo 1667 VA Land Grant Fully Transcribed
Here is a full transcription of Emaunell Cumbo’s 18 April 1667 land grant which I am making publicly available to researchers for the first time. To all who rea...
Meeting the Queen
The New Museum This past weekend the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture opened its doors to the public. It was a herculean eff...
The Origins of the Name Cumbo
Cumbo is a very unique sounding name. It stands out from the traditionally Anglo names associated with the first inhabitants of Jamestown. The origins of the ...
My Ancestral Pilgrimage to Northampton, NC
My Cumbo ancestors settled into Northampton County, North Carolina at the turn of the Nineteenth Century. Here is a travelogue of my trip to Northampton in Oct...
The Origins of Emanuell Cambow
Tim Hashaw in his book “The Birth of Black America: The First African Americans and the Pursuit of Freedom at Jamestown” makes reference to the orig...
Emanuell Cambow of Jamestown, VA
Here is what we know about Emanuell Cambow based on the book “Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware...