This chapter brings readers’ attention to the fact that throughout United States history, government has been an active and necessary part of building the country. In the colonial period, for example, laws regulating taverns and other businesses proliferated. After the Founding, under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton and the federalists, the central government was seen as the necessary force needed to support an economy that then enabled the country to participate on the world economic stage. The anti-federalists, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, aceded to the need for the government to support the economy in the ways proposed by the Federalists.

Chapter 2 introduces the kingdom of Ndongo and focuses on its relationship to Kongo in terms of political and social structures. It looks at the election of Philipe Hari I to the throne of Pungo-Andongo, examining his rivalry with and family ties to Queen Njinga, and how the Portuguese used his election to foster trade relationships in Angola by introducing the baculamento tax system. The chapter then explores the role of João Hari II (Dom João de Sousa), also known as Ngola Aiidi, the son who succeeded Hari I, and the ideology of Francisco de Távora ‘Cajanda’, the Portuguese governor of Luanda at the time. It investigates the destruction of Pungo-Andongo and the sending of the kingdom’s princes and princesses, Queen Njinga’s nephews and nieces, to Brazil. The chapter is concerned with exploring the political environment of Angola and the wider region as the backdrop to Mendonça’s debate on freedom and enslaved Africans in the Atlantic region.