Everything about Anthony Johnson American Colonial totally explained
Anthony Johnson (? - 1669?) was an early
black resident of the
Virginia Colony. He was one of the original 20 African laborers brought to
Jamestown in 1619 as an
indentured servant. On records from Jamestown, he's referred to as "Antonio a Negro". In the 1640s, he purchased his freedom from indentured servitude for both himself and his wife and by 1651 he was prosperous enough to import five "servants" of his own, for which he was granted as "headrights".
According to the earliest known court records,
slavery was first established in Virginia in 1654, when Johnson convinced the court in
Northampton County that he was entitled to the lifetime services of
John Casor, also a black man. Claiming that he'd been imported as an indentured servant, Casor attempted to transfer what he argued was his remaining time of service to Robert Parker, a white, but Johnson insisted that he "had ye Negro for his life."
The court ruled that "seriously consideringe and maturely weighing the premisses, that the said Mr. Robert Parker most unjustly keepeth the said Negro from Anthony Johnson his master....It is therefore the Judgement of the Court and ordered That the said John Casor Negro forthwith returne unto the service of the said master Anthony Johnson, And that Mr. Robert Parker make payment of all charges in the suit."
The unfortunate defendant in the court action, John Casor, thus became the first individual in
Virginia known to be legally declared a
slave by the government (before this case legally defined bondage hadn't yet fully taken hold in Virginia, although it had already by the 1630s in Massachusetts; in Virginia blacks were indentured servants up until slavery gradually took effect).
In 1664, worried for his family and facing tighter prejudice against free blacks, Johnson sold his land and moved his family to Maryland, where he rented new land. In 1669, after Johnson's death, a jury of white men in Virginia declared that because Johnson "was a Negroe and by consequence an alien," so the 50 acres he'd deeded to his son Richard in Virginia was awarded to another white man. Anthony Johnson was the most wealthy black man to have purchased his contract from indentured service ever up until the end of the Civil War 200 years later.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Anthony Johnson American Colonial'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://anthony_johnson__american_colonial.totallyexplained.com">Anthony Johnson (American Colonial) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
