Anthony Johnson - The Father of US Slavery

[GHook93]

I know what libs will combat this with. They won't care that the story quoted the actual case that set the legal precedent. They will instead attack WND as racist (doesn't matter a black man wrote the article.

I digress. The father of US slavery was Anthony Johnson a black land owner in the New world in the 1600s. Back then most of the poor settlers (mostly white, but some black) came over as indentured servants. Indentured servants were like slaves, but not quite slaves. Back then indentured servatude was legal, but slavery was not.

Anthony Johnson acquired another black man by the name of John Carson as an indentured servant. Carson term of servitude was up and he wanted his land and freedom, so Johnson took him to court stating he was acquired as a slave not an indentured servant. The court sided with Johnson and the first slave (of any race) was created in the US. This court ruling was used as a means to bring other slaves to the US and the US slave trade was born.

One needs to stop and think for a minute. What if this black man didn't bring this case? Would we have had slavery in the US? Maybe not. We might have kept up the indentured servitude system. In fact, the peasants of any society are always against slavery. First, slaves take jobs they would have worked (since they do not cost any wages and they can be beaten into working harder) and second, they never benefit from their work, because they are too expensive to own.

Father of U.S. slavery was a black man
The Virginia Company, however, changed the rules. They would now allow anyone to pay a person’s transportation to the colony in exchange for a period of indentured servitude, subject to certain caveats. Under the new rules, knowledge of a skill of any kind was not included in this contract and whoever paid the cost of passage would receive the 50 acres of land for each passage purchased. Indentured servants would now get nothing but a trip and often found themselves without rights or freedom. As one white indentured servant, Thomas Best, wrote from Virginia in 1623, “My master Atkins hath sold me for 150 pounds sterling like a damned slave.”

Indentured servants, especially whites, could (and often did) slip away, become part of another settlement and simply disappear. A permanent, economically beneficial solution for the elites was sought and implemented.

Note: The Bible points out a common failing and path to social injustice: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Nothing against money per se, but the love of same precipitates activities that generate misery; not a high endorsement for a concept it is supposed to propagate and undergird. (As an aside, the overwhelming majority thinks the Bible is a religious book designed to promote religion. In actuality, there are seven references to religious/religion in the Bible, and six of them are negative.)

Here, history takes a bizarre turn. When I came upon this one particularly astonishing bit of information, I was flabbergasted.

Part of the problem with facts is they can cause discomfort when they do not conform to our preconceived notions. Not once had I ever heard so much as a whisper of this, and it flew in the face of everything I knew – everybody knew – about the origins of slavery in the English colonies. Talk about political incorrectness!

Remember the aforementioned Anthony Johnson? He raised livestock, prospered and as was customary with prosperous landowners, indenturing one black and several white servants. Johnson had sued in court and won several cases, but one case in particular would set the stage for a dramatic shift in the workforce. There are several reports as to the origin of this landmark case, which would indelibly change the American cultural landscape and impact relationships between blacks and whites for centuries.

One report says John Casor, a black indentured servant, “swindled” Johnson out of the remainder of his servitude. Another says the family convinced Johnson to free Casor. Still another says Casor “convinced” a white neighbor, Robert Parker, that he was being illegally detained. Whatever the reason, Johnson was not satisfied with the status quo and took Casor and Parker to court, alleging that Casor had not been obtained as a servant, but as a slave.

Understand the true significance of this case. Johnson was not suing to have John Casor fulfill some measure of a debt of servitude. Instead, he insisted the court grant his petition that “he had ye Negro for his life.” He was claiming the services of John Casor for the remainder of Casor’s natural life. To my knowledge, there is no earlier record of judicial support given to slavery in Virginia except as a punishment for crime. Anthony Johnson was asking the court to award him John Casor (who had committed no crime) as a slave.

Parker and one other influential landowner, both white, sided with Casor. However, the court ruled for Johnson. In the original language taken from the original documents is the decision of the county court:

“Court of Northampton; Eight Mar, Anno1654:
Whereas complaint was this daye made to ye court by ye humble peticion of Anth. Johnson Negro ag[ains]t Mr. Robert Parker…”

I needed to read it slowly and in modern English:

“Whereas complaint was this day made to the court by the humble petition of Anthony Johnson, Negro, against Mr. Robert Parker that he detains one John Casor, a Negro, the plaintiff’s servant under pretense that the said John Casor is a freeman. The court seriously considering and maturely weighing the premises do find that the said Mr. Robert Parker most unrightly keeps the said Negro John Casor from his rightful master Anthony Johnson, as it appears by the Deposition of Capt. Samuel Goldsmith and many probable circumstances. Be it therefore the Judgment of the court and ordered that said John Casor, Negro, shall forthwith be turned into the service of his said master, Anthony Johnson, and that the said Mr. Robert Parker make payment of all charges in the suit and execution. (Eighth March, Year 1654)”

This is apparently the first legal sanction of slavery (not for a crime) in the New World.

Johnson – who had himself been captured in Angola and brought to America as an indentured servant – was a black man.

From evidence found in the earliest legal documents, Anthony Johnson must be recognized as the nation’s first official legal slaveholder.

The father of legalized slavery in America was a black man.

 

[High_Gravity]

 

[Pennywise]

History has been rewritten by progressives since the early 20th century, and it continues to be. How else could FDR still today be seen as an heroic figure? And that's just one miniscule example.

I fear what the textbooks and historians will proclaim about the wretched times in which we now live, and the black pigs who inhabit the white house.

 

[rightwinger]

History has been rewritten by progressives since the early 20th century, and it continues to be. How else could FDR still today be seen as an heroic figure? And that's just one miniscule example.

I fear what the textbooks and historians will proclaim about the wretched times in which we now live, and the black pigs who inhabit the white house.

 

[GHook93]

Very sad indeed. This country would have been much better without slavery (obviously). Slaves are always detrimental for the lower and middle class. They take the jobs they could be working (very much like illegals do today).

However, people need to understand history. Throughout history slavery was primarily a same race activity. Of course there were exceptions. In ancient Roman the majority of slaves were white slaves. Same with Africa, they had black slaves. Same in the Arab, Asian and Ameircan Indian worlds. Slaves where usually the same race as their masters.

What liberals also for get when discussing slavery or what hollywood leaves out is that millions of whites fought slavery from the beginning of the country. Millions died WILLINGLY to end slaver (yes you hear the war was fought to preserve the union, but the union separated because of encroachment on slave owning rights). The KKK sprung up to harass WHITE Liberal Republicans and eventually targetted the Blacks who just acquired the right to vote. However, many people leave out that whites were the ones that took down the KKK (and it was taken down) during reconstruction!

 

[Moonglow]

You don't get around much.

 

[Pennywise]

History has been rewritten by progressives since the early 20th century, and it continues to be. How else could FDR still today be seen as an heroic figure? And that's just one miniscule example.

I fear what the textbooks and historians will proclaim about the wretched times in which we now live, and the black pigs who inhabit the white house.

Awesome. Why not tell the class about the depression? Not the Great Depression, the one that thrived on FDR's policies, the earlier depression. Tell us all about that one, why it was not GREAT, and why it subsided of its own volition.

Or just post another useless smiley.

 

[Alfalfa]

I know what libs will combat this with. They won't care that the story quoted the actual case that set the legal precedent. They will instead attack WND as racist (doesn't matter a black man wrote the article.

I digress. The father of US slavery was Anthony Johnson a black land owner in the New world in the 1600s. Back then most of the poor settlers (mostly white, but some black) came over as indentured servants. Indentured servants were like slaves, but not quite slaves. Back then indentured servatude was legal, but slavery was not.

Anthony Johnson acquired another black man by the name of John Carson as an indentured servant. Carson term of servitude was up and he wanted his land and freedom, so Johnson took him to court stating he was acquired as a slave not an indentured servant. The court sided with Johnson and the first slave (of any race) was created in the US. This court ruling was used as a means to bring other slaves to the US and the US slave trade was born.

One needs to stop and think for a minute. What if this black man didn't bring this case? Would we have had slavery in the US? Maybe not. We might have kept up the indentured servitude system. In fact, the peasants of any society are always against slavery. First, slaves take jobs they would have worked (since they do not cost any wages and they can be beaten into working harder) and second, they never benefit from their work, because they are too expensive to own.

Father of U.S. slavery was a black man
The Virginia Company, however, changed the rules. They would now allow anyone to pay a person’s transportation to the colony in exchange for a period of indentured servitude, subject to certain caveats. Under the new rules, knowledge of a skill of any kind was not included in this contract and whoever paid the cost of passage would receive the 50 acres of land for each passage purchased. Indentured servants would now get nothing but a trip and often found themselves without rights or freedom. As one white indentured servant, Thomas Best, wrote from Virginia in 1623, “My master Atkins hath sold me for 150 pounds sterling like a damned slave.”

Indentured servants, especially whites, could (and often did) slip away, become part of another settlement and simply disappear. A permanent, economically beneficial solution for the elites was sought and implemented.

Note: The Bible points out a common failing and path to social injustice: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Nothing against money per se, but the love of same precipitates activities that generate misery; not a high endorsement for a concept it is supposed to propagate and undergird. (As an aside, the overwhelming majority thinks the Bible is a religious book designed to promote religion. In actuality, there are seven references to religious/religion in the Bible, and six of them are negative.)

Here, history takes a bizarre turn. When I came upon this one particularly astonishing bit of information, I was flabbergasted.

Part of the problem with facts is they can cause discomfort when they do not conform to our preconceived notions. Not once had I ever heard so much as a whisper of this, and it flew in the face of everything I knew – everybody knew – about the origins of slavery in the English colonies. Talk about political incorrectness!

Remember the aforementioned Anthony Johnson? He raised livestock, prospered and as was customary with prosperous landowners, indenturing one black and several white servants. Johnson had sued in court and won several cases, but one case in particular would set the stage for a dramatic shift in the workforce. There are several reports as to the origin of this landmark case, which would indelibly change the American cultural landscape and impact relationships between blacks and whites for centuries.

One report says John Casor, a black indentured servant, “swindled” Johnson out of the remainder of his servitude. Another says the family convinced Johnson to free Casor. Still another says Casor “convinced” a white neighbor, Robert Parker, that he was being illegally detained. Whatever the reason, Johnson was not satisfied with the status quo and took Casor and Parker to court, alleging that Casor had not been obtained as a servant, but as a slave.

Understand the true significance of this case. Johnson was not suing to have John Casor fulfill some measure of a debt of servitude. Instead, he insisted the court grant his petition that “he had ye Negro for his life.” He was claiming the services of John Casor for the remainder of Casor’s natural life. To my knowledge, there is no earlier record of judicial support given to slavery in Virginia except as a punishment for crime. Anthony Johnson was asking the court to award him John Casor (who had committed no crime) as a slave.

Parker and one other influential landowner, both white, sided with Casor. However, the court ruled for Johnson. In the original language taken from the original documents is the decision of the county court:

“Court of Northampton; Eight Mar, Anno1654:
Whereas complaint was this daye made to ye court by ye humble peticion of Anth. Johnson Negro ag[ains]t Mr. Robert Parker…”

I needed to read it slowly and in modern English:

“Whereas complaint was this day made to the court by the humble petition of Anthony Johnson, Negro, against Mr. Robert Parker that he detains one John Casor, a Negro, the plaintiff’s servant under pretense that the said John Casor is a freeman. The court seriously considering and maturely weighing the premises do find that the said Mr. Robert Parker most unrightly keeps the said Negro John Casor from his rightful master Anthony Johnson, as it appears by the Deposition of Capt. Samuel Goldsmith and many probable circumstances. Be it therefore the Judgment of the court and ordered that said John Casor, Negro, shall forthwith be turned into the service of his said master, Anthony Johnson, and that the said Mr. Robert Parker make payment of all charges in the suit and execution. (Eighth March, Year 1654)”

This is apparently the first legal sanction of slavery (not for a crime) in the New World.

Johnson – who had himself been captured in Angola and brought to America as an indentured servant – was a black man.

From evidence found in the earliest legal documents, Anthony Johnson must be recognized as the nation’s first official legal slaveholder.

The father of legalized slavery in America was a black man.

So?

 

[JakeStarkey]

Ghook, you have been corrected so your memory must be short.

99.5% of American slaves were not owned by blacks, hmmm.

 

[Asclepias]

Your OP is blatantly false and it is well known that Hugh Gwyn is the first slave owner. Even though it does not excuse the actions of Antonio Johnson who was an indentured servant himself prior to gaining freedom.

Genealogists and historians describe John Punch as the first documented slave because he was an indentured servant sentenced to life in servitude as punishment for escaping in 1640. His master Hugh Gwyn was legally recognized as a slave owner before Anthony Johnson.[16] The Punch case was significant because it established the disparity between his sentence as a negro and that of the two European servants who escaped with him (one described as Dutch and one as a Scotchman). It is the first documented case of an African slave in Virginia. It is considered one of the first legal cases to make a racial distinction between black and white indentured servants.

Interesting link regarding the POTUS connection in this.

Little Known Black History Fact: John Punch | Black America Web

 

[Pauli007001]

Who cares.
Slavery is history, forget about it!

 

[MonaGonna]

Kunta Kinte was the first slave, wasn't he?

 

[Asclepias]

Who cares.
Slavery is history, forget about it!

Right after the Jews forget the Holocaust or the Herero forget theirs at the hands of the Germans.

Herero and Namaqua Genocide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[MonaGonna]

Who cares.
Slavery is history, forget about it!

Right after the Jews forget the Holocaust or the Herero froget theirs at the hands of the Germans.

Herero and Namaqua Genocide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

C'mon, you guys should do something cool for a change and go first, to show the Jews how it's done to let bygones be bygones. Anyways, slavery didn't happen to you, so what do YOU have to complain about?

 

[Asclepias]

Who cares.
Slavery is history, forget about it!

Right after the Jews forget the Holocaust or the Herero froget theirs at the hands of the Germans.

Herero and Namaqua Genocide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

C'mon, you guys should do something cool for a change and go first, to show the Jews how it's done to let bygones be bygones. Anyways, slavery didn't happen to you, so what do YOU have to complain about?

Thats exactly the sentiment that always trips up people of color. Always remember.

 

[MonaGonna]

Right after the Jews forget the Holocaust or the Herero froget theirs at the hands of the Germans.

Herero and Namaqua Genocide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

C'mon, you guys should do something cool for a change and go first, to show the Jews how it's done to let bygones be bygones. Anyways, slavery didn't happen to you, so what do YOU have to complain about?

Thats exactly the sentiment that always trips up people of color. Always remember.

I didn't say to forget, but you guys act like it happened to you. Some even want reparations paid.

 

[Pauli007001]

Who cares.
Slavery is history, forget about it!

Right after the Jews forget the Holocaust or the Herero forget theirs at the hands of the Germans.

Herero and Namaqua Genocide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Jews don't constantly blame those who didn't do it!!!
Idiot.
Big difference between slavery and genocide, idiot.
If blacks don't like slavery, why did they invent it?

 

[Pauli007001]

Right after the Jews forget the Holocaust or the Herero froget theirs at the hands of the Germans.

Herero and Namaqua Genocide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

C'mon, you guys should do something cool for a change and go first, to show the Jews how it's done to let bygones be bygones. Anyways, slavery didn't happen to you, so what do YOU have to complain about?

Thats exactly the sentiment that always trips up people of color. Always remember.

People of color invented slavery.
They should remember.
Perhaps take responsibility too !!

 

[Asclepias]

Who cares.
Slavery is history, forget about it!

Right after the Jews forget the Holocaust or the Herero forget theirs at the hands of the Germans.

Herero and Namaqua Genocide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Jews don't constantly blame those who didn't do it!!!
Idiot.
Big difference between slavery and genocide, idiot.
If blacks don't like slavery, why did they invent it?

The Jews don't continually blame Germany because the Super powers set up a state for them by taking land in the middle east and protecting them. they have been groomed to be successful idiot.

Yes the big difference was that Black people had to be abducted, work for free, raped, brainwashed, and killed.. the Jews were just killed idiot.

Why do you say Blacks invented slavery? Ancient Greece at 1 point boasted a slave for every household. The word slave comes from the Slavic people.

 

[Pauli007001]

Right after the Jews forget the Holocaust or the Herero forget theirs at the hands of the Germans.

Herero and Namaqua Genocide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Jews don't constantly blame those who didn't do it!!!
Idiot.
Big difference between slavery and genocide, idiot.
If blacks don't like slavery, why did they invent it?

The Jews don't continually blame Germany because the Super powers set up a state for them by taking land in the middle east and protecting them. they have been groomed to be successful idiot.

Yes the big difference was that Black people had to be abducted, work for free, raped, brainwashed, and killed.. the Jews were just killed idiot.

Why do you say Blacks invented slavery? Ancient Greece at 1 point boasted a slave for every household. The word slave comes from the Slavic people.

The word slave comes from Slavic because?

That's right!!

Africans used them as..............

Ancient Greece wasn't even thought of when the Punic people's first built cities in sub Saharan Africa.
Or when the pharoes were first mummified.

Did not Egypt or the pre cathagenian Punic people's not own slaves?

Did the nomadic al Rashid and Danakil not set up routes through Europe including way stations, hostels and other infrastructure, much of it still in place today?

Slavery is an African concept.

When a general lays down smoke in battle he recognizes that smoke is a two edged sword!!