Tammero
ID
1609,000,266
Gender
Male
Family
Ancestor Notes

Tammero and his wife Oyou  were enslaved at Sylvester Manor in Shelter Island are listed in the 1680 Last Will and Testament of Nathaniel Sylvester.

"Tammero may have been from the Igbo-speaking Ibo district of Nigeria, possibly put on a ship at the Calabar Fort headed for a Spanish port in the Americas. Africans transported on Spanish ships were routinely baptized; but if they were unsold at the first port of call, they were moved to British ports, often Barbados, and many retained names associated with their origins of embarcation or ethnicity." https://www.sylvestermanor.org/slavery-at-the-manor/tammero-oyou-obium/

They were bequeathed to Nathaniel’s 17 year old son, Peter Sylvester.

Their sons, Obium and Tom were also enslaved, and  were bequeathed to 23 year old Constant Sylvester.

There are also 2 un-named children of Tammero and Oyou who were bequeathed to 21 year old Benjamin Sylvester.

In 1680, when the bequeaths were made, all of these people were living on Shelter Island at Sylvester Manor with Grizell Sylvester, Nathaniel’s widow.

Tammero and Oyou were brought to Shelter Island in 1652 from Barbados and probably came from Africa, having survived the middle passage.  They may have been from Nigeria.  

The group of enslaved people brought to Shelter Island in 1652 arrived to find a climate very much colder than their homelands, and the physically challenging work of building the settlement, working the farm for food production and clearing land.

Please see the Sylvester Manor site for a more detailed biography and ongoing research: https://www.sylvestermanor.org/slavery-at-the-manor/tammero-oyou-obium/