In 1682, the girl who would become Parthena, a slave of the Williams family in Deerfield, Massachusetts, was born in Senegambia, the region between the Senegal and Gambia Rivers in West Africa. She was of the Fulani, a nomadic people who, at that time, tended their herds of cattle on the grassy savannas of the Sudan from the Atlantic coast to Lake Chad. The Fulani were Muslim, which set them apart from some of the other peoples in Senegambia, such as the Wolof. Their appearance was also distinct. They were light-skinned, tall, and thin, with North African Berbers or, some say, people from Arabia among their ancestors.

You can learn more about Parthena on the Raid on Deerfield website.