Anthony Johnson (colonist): Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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'''Anthony Johnson''' (c1600 &mdash; 1670) was a black [[Angola]]n held as an [[indentured servant]] by a merchant in the [[Colony of Virginia]] in 1620, but later freed to become a successful [[tobacco]] farmer and property owner. Notably, he was the first legallylegal recognizedslave blackowner man&mdash; tothat ownis, indenturedthe servants/slaves duefirst to thehold verdict[[John ofCasor|a Johnsonservant vs. Parker,as a civilslave]] suit<ref>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/1641.html</ref>.in the mainland American colonies.

==Biography==

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==Significance of Casor suit==

JohnsonSlavery vswas Parkerestablished wasin theVirginia firstin time1655, Virginiawhen legallyJohnson recognizedconvinced a court that blackshis couldservant ownJohn indenturedCasor servants/slaves(also a black man), was his for life.<ref name="Sweet2005">{{Cite book|author=Frank W. Sweet|title=Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule|url=http://wwwbooks.pbsgoogle.orgcom/wnet/slavery/timeline/1641.htmlbooks?id=kezflCVnongC&pg=PA117|accessdate=23 February 2013|date=July 2005|publisher=Backintyme|isbn=978-0-939479-23-8|page=117}}</ref>. Johnson himself had been brought to Virginia some years earlier as an indentured servant but he had saved enough money to buy out the remainder of his contract and that of his wife. The court ruling in Johnson’s favor resulted in Casor becoming the first state-recognized slave in the [[Colony of Virginia]]. Slavery in Virginia was officially enacted in state law for free whites, blacks, and Indians in 1661.<ref>Act CII, Laws of Virginia, March, 1661-2 (Hening, Statutes at Large, 2: 116-17)</ref>

Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World. The landowner received 50 acres of land from the state (headrights) for each servant purchased (around £6 per person in the 17th Century) from a ships captain. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery. Servants could be bought, sold, or leased. They could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Unlike slaves they were freed after their term of service expired or was bought out, their children did not inherit their status, and on their release from contract they received "a year's provision of corn, double apparel, tools necessary" and a small cash payment called "freedom dues."—John Hammond ''Indentured Servitude''. Johnson himself had arrived in Virginia as an indentured servant.

The practice of importing Africans to the North American colonies started in the Virginia area in 1619, though [[slavery in the Spanish New World colonies]] brought African slaves to the Americas as early as the 1560s.<ref>[[David Brion Davis]], ''Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World.'' [[Oxford University Press]], 2006, p. 124</ref>

By 1699, the number of free blacks prompted fears of a “Negro insurrection.” Virginia Colonial ordered the repatriation of freed blacks back to Africa. Many blacks sold themselves to white masters so they would not have to go to Africa. This was the first effort to repatriate free blacks back to Africa. The modern nations of Sierra Leone and Liberia both originated as colonies of repatriated former black slaves.However, black slave owners continued to thrive in the United States.By 1830 there were 3,775 black families living in the South who owned black slaves. By 1860 there were about 3,000 slaves owned by black households in the city of New Orleans alone.

==Later life==

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When Anthony was released he was legally recognized as a “free Negro” and ran a successful farm. In 1651 he held 250 acres and five black indentured servants. In 1654, it was time for Anthony to release John Casor, a black indentured servant. Instead Anthony told Casor he was extending his time. Casor left and became employed by the free white man Robert Parker.

Anthony Johnson sued Robert Parker in the Northampton Court in 1654. In 1655, the court ruled that Anthony Johnson stillcould ownedhold John Casor andindefinitely. thatThe Parkercourt hadgave judicial sanction for blacks to returnown slave of their own race. Thus Casor became the first himpermanent immediatelyslave and payJohnson allthe chargesfirst inslave owner. While some genealogists and historians describe [[John Punch (slave)|John Punch]] as the suitfirst slave, he was technically still an indentured servant, as he was sentenced to serve the remainder of his life in servitude as punishment for escaping.<ref name="LLC">[http://wwwmemory.encyclopediavirginialoc.orggov/Court_Ruling_on_Anthony_Johnson_and_His_Servant_1655ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/slavery.html Slavery and Indentured Servants] [[Law Library of Congress]]</ref>. The courtCasor, gaveby judicialcontrast, sanctionwas for blacksfound to ownhave indenturedbeen servants/slavesa ofslave theirsince ownhis racearrival in Virginia.

Whites still could not legally hold a black servant as an indefinite slave until 1670. In that year, the colonial assembly passed legislation permitting free whites, blacks, and Indians the right to own blacks as slaves.