Portrait of Wange Hendrik Richard van Bali, Born as Naï

Wange van Bali was born into slavery around 1789 in Leeot, on the island of Flores in Indonesia, and was then given the name Naï. He is one of the children of an enslaved woman and a farmer. His mother dies shortly after his birth, and a few years later, when Naï is about five years old, he is sold by the slave owner. There follows a series of changes of owner until the naval officer Jan Hendrik Bagelaar buys the boy in Surabaya in 1808 and takes him to the Netherlands two years later. He goes to work in Delft in the household of Jan Hendrik Bagelaar's sister, Anne Suzanne Bagelaar, and her husband Jacobus Van der Chijs. He probably learns to read and write there, and on December 27, 1818, he is baptized in the New Church in Delft. He receives the name Wange Hendrik Richard van Bali. In 1828, he marries the maid Rosella Jacoba van Dort; they have five children. In later life, Wange puts his childhood memories on paper.