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Anthony Johnson (c1600 — 1670) was a black Angolan 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 legally recognized slave owner in the English colonies to hold a servant for life where crime was not involved.

Biography

Early life

Johnson was captured by Arab traders in his native Angola by an enemy tribe and sold as a slave to a merchant working for the Virginia Company.

The Virginia Muster (census) of 1624 lists his name as "Antonio not given" with "a Negro" written in the notes column and records that he had arrived in Virginia in 1621 aboard the James. However, there is some dispute as to whether this was the Antonio who became Anthony Johnson as the census lists several Antonios' with this one being only the most likely. Johnson was sold to a white planter named Bennet to work on his Virginia tobacco farm as an indentured servant. Servants typically worked four to seven years in exchange for passage, room, board, lodging and freedom dues. Most Africans in the thirteen Colonies were held under contracts of indentured servitude and, with the exception of those indentured for life, were released after a contracted period with many of the indentured receiving land and equipment after their contracts expired or were bought out. Johnson would later take ownership of a large plot of farmland after he paid out his contract. For those that survived the work and received their freedom package, many historians argue that they were better off than those new immigrants who came freely to the country. Their contract may have included at least 25 acres of land, a year's worth of corn, arms, a cow and new clothes. Some servants did rise to become part of the colonial elite, but for the majority of indentured servants that survived the journey by sea and the conditions of life in the New World, life was as a modest freeman in an expanding colonial economy.

Johnson almost lost his life in the Indian massacre of 1622 when his master's farm was attacked. The Powhatans, who were native to Virginia, were upset at the advance of the tobacco planters into their land and planned an attack on Good Friday. Of the fifty-seven men on the farm where Johnson worked, fifty-two died during the attack. In 1622, 30 Native Americans attacked Jamestown to avenge the death of one of their leaders.

The following year (1623) "Mary, a Negro" arrived from England aboard the ship Margaret and was brought in to work on the plantation, where she was the only woman. They were married and lived together for over forty years.

Freedom

Sometime after 1635 Antonio and Mary were freed, and Antonio changed his name to Anthony Johnson. Johnson first enters the legal record as a free man when he purchased a calf in 1647 and on 24 July 1651 he acquired 250 acres (100 ha) of land under the headright system by buying five indentured servants, one of whom was his son Richard Johnson. The land was located on the Great Naswattock Creek which flowed into the Pungoteague River in Northampton County, Virginia.:

In 1652 "an unfortunate fire" caused "great losses" for the family and Johnson applied to the courts for tax relief. The court not only lightened the families taxes but on 28 February 1652, exempted his wife Mary and her two daughters from paying taxes at all "during their natural lives." At that time taxes were levied on people not property and under the 1645 Virginia taxation act "all negro men and women and all other men from the age of 16 to 60 shall be judged tithable." It is unclear from the records why the Johnson women were exempted but this gave them the same social standing as white women. During the case, the justices noted that Anthony and Mary "have lived Inhabitants in Virginia (above thirty years)" and had been respected for their "hard labor and known service".

Casor suit

When Johnson was released from servitude he was legally recognized as a "free Negro" and ran a successful farm. In 1651 he owned 250 acres and four white and one black indentured servant. In 1653, John Casor, a black indentured servant Johnson had apparently bought in the early 1640s approached Captain Goldsmith claiming his indenture had expired seven years earlier and that he was being held illegally. A neighbor, Robert Parker intervened and Johnson was perseuded to set Casor free. Parker took Casor away to work as a free man on his own plantation. Johnson sued Robert Parker in the Northampton Court in 1654 for the return of Casor. The court initially found in favor of Casor but Johnson appealed and in 1655, the court reversed it's ruling.

In 1655, the court ruled that since Anthony Johnson still "owned" John Casor that he be returned and the court dues paid by Robert Parker. This was the first instance of a judicial determination in the thirteen colonies holding that a person who had committed no crime could be held in servitude for life.

Some genealogists and historians describe John Punch as the first actual slave because he was sentenced to life in servitude as punishment for escaping in 1641. Casor, by contrast, was found to have been a slave since his arrival in Virginia.

Significance of Casor suit

The legal determination of the Casor case remained unsupported until 1661-2 when Virginia passed the first laws legalizing slavery, the legislation incorporated the doctrine of Partus sequitur ventrem, that the offspring of a slave took the status of the mother ad infinitum (forever) which was soon widely adopted by other colonies despite the doctrine directly contradicting common law. The institution of slavery first became legal when Maryland passed a law in 1664 requiring negroes to serve durante vita (for life). However it would be several decades before laws defining exactly what a slave was were passed. As the laws defining slavery were enacted racial prejudice slowly developed in their wake.

The practice of importing African indentured servants 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. The Virginia Muster (census) of 1624 listed 1,292 colonists, of these some 809 were free while 483 were indentured servants. The number of Africans in the colony, both indentured servants and free numbered 23. There were three classes of indentured servitude, those who signed a contract with an agent before boarding a ship who would then be auctioned to the highest bidder on arrival, those who had no contract and were allowed several days to arrange their own indenture or be indentured by the captain on his terms and convicts, vagrants and kidnapped people who were forcibly indentured. An indenture of three to five years was common although times for young children were usually much longer and for the third class of indentures life terms were not unknown. 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 "freedom dues." Dues varied by state and in Virginia consisted of 50 acres of land, ten bushels of corn, one musket and a 30 shilling cash payment. Surveys of records indicate that from around 1675, with land becoming scarcer and more expensive, owners often took former servants to court to dispute their entitlement to freedom dues and that only 25% of freed servants received the land component with more than two thirds of those immediately selling the rights and keeping no land for themselves.

By 1699, there had been several armed insurrections by white indentured servants and 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

In 1657, Johnson’s white neighbor, Edmund Scarborough, forged a letter in which Johnson acknowledged a debt. Johnson did not contest the case and although he was clearly illiterate and couldn’t have written the letter, the court granted Scarborough 100 acres of Johnson’s land to pay off his "debt". While it was very common for white landowners to take advantage of blacks in this manner, by and large they enjoyed "relative equality" with the white community. Around 20% of free blacks in Virginia at this time owned their own homes and half of those were married to white women. By 1665, racism was becoming more common and Johnson moved his family to Somerset County, Maryland, where he negotiated a lease on a 300-acre (120 ha) plot of land for ninety-nine years. Johnson used this land to start a tobacco farm, which he named Tories Vineyards.

References

1. Horton 2002, p. 29.
2. Breen1980, p. 8.
3. Walsh, Lorena (2010). Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763. Pg 115: UNC Press. ISBN 9780807832349.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
4. Horton 2002, p. 26.
5. ^ Rodriguez, Junius. Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 2. Pg 353: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851095445. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |year 2007= (help)CS1 maint: location (link)
6. ^ Breen 1980, p. 10.
7. ^ Heinegg, Paul (2005). Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to about 1820, Volume 2. Pg 705: Genealogical Publishing. ISBN 9780806352824.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
8. ^ Breen, T. H. (2004). "Myne Owne Ground" : Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676. Pg 12: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199729050. {{cite book}}: no-break space character in |title= at position 19 (help)CS1 maint: location (link)
9. Walker, Juliet (2009). The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship, Volume 1. Pg 49: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9780807832417.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
10. Frank W. Sweet (July 2005). Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule. Backintyme. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-939479-23-8. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
11. Miller, Adam (2006). Discovering A Lost Heritage: the Catholic Origins of America. Pg 162: Lulu. ISBN 9781411620360.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
12. Danver, Steven (2010). Popular Controversies in World History. Pg 322: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598840780.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
13. Kozlowski, Darrell (2010). Colonialism: Key Concepts in American History. Pg 78: Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781604132175.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
14. Federal Writers' Project (1954). Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion. Pg 76: US History Publishers. ISBN 9781603540452.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
15. Conway, John (2008). A Look at the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments: Slavery Abolished, Equal Protection Established. Pg 5: Enslow Publishers. ISBN 9781598450705.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
16. Toppin, Edgar (2010). The Black American in United States History. Pg 46: Allyn & Bacon. ISBN 9781475961720.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
17. ^ Young, Park (2012). The Dark Side: Immigrants, Racism, and the American Way. Pg 62: iUniverse. ISBN 9781475961720.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
18. Act CII, Laws of Virginia, March, 1661-2 (Hening, Statutes at Large, 2: 116-17)
19. ^ Brown, David (2007). Race in the American South: From Slavery to Civil Rights. Pg 24: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748613762.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
20. David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 124
21. ^ Applebaum, Herbert (1996). Colonial Americans at Work. pp. 88 - 103: University Press of America. ISBN 9780761804314.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
22. Holloway, Joseph. "The Black Slave Owners". Retrieved 8 October 2011.
23. Johnson 1999, p. 44.

Sources

• James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, Hard road to freedon: the story of African America, Rutgers University Press, 2002.
• Charles Johnson, Patricia Smith and the WGBH Research Team, Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999.
• Cox, Ryan Charles. "The Johnson Family: The Migratory Study of an African-American Family on the Eastern Shore". Delmarva Settlers, accessed 16 November 2012.
• Ira Berlin, _Many Thousands Gone, The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America_, Harvard University Press, 1998.
• Virginia, Guide to The Old Dominion, WPA Writers' Program, Oxford University Press, NY, 1940 (p. 378)
• A Thinkport Library article on Johnson's Life
• Nash, Gary B., Julie R. Jeffrey, John R. Howe, Peter J. Frederick, Allen F. Davis, and Allan M. Winkler. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. 6th ed. New York: Pearson, 2004. 74-75.
• Matthews, Harry Bradshaw, The Family Legacy of Anthony Johnson: From Jamestown, VA to Somerset, MD, 1619-1995. Oneonta, NY: Sondhi Loimthongkul Center for Interdependenc, Hartwick College, 1995.

External links

• Anthony Johnson - Africans in America, PBS.org
• Exploring Maryland's Roots: Anthony Johnson
• Template:Persondata

• 1670 deaths
• American people of Angolan descent
• American slaves
• History of slavery in Virginia
• Virginia colonial people
• African slaves in the Americas