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. The Driggus couple had other children, who were born into slavery. In 1657, Captain Potts
sold two of their children, Thomas and Ann Driggus, to pay off some personal debt. Driggus
was freed after the death of Potts in 1658. By then, he was a widower and had remarried, but he continued to provide for the enslaved children from his first marriage. He bequeathed a horse to his daughters Francy and Jane in 1673. Due to the rise of legal restrictions on free Black people, Driggus faced struggles in the later part of his life. This included being fined for entertaining two servants, also having to hire himself out as a servant in 1674, to cover a debt due to a case he lost in 1672. The last record of Driggus was a debt he owed to a planter in 1685.
Descendants His son Thomas Driggus eventually married a
free Black woman; their children were born free because she was free. According to geneaological analysis by Paul Heinegg, Driggus's
free Black descendants migrated to North and South Carolina. Some members of the Driggers family were progenitors of the
Melungeons of Appalachia, and the
Lumbee of North Carolina. ==References==