Court Ruling on Anthony Johnson and His Servant (Image: Wiki Commons)

Anthony Johnson: The Black Slave Owner of Black Slaves in Colonial America

Anthony Johnson: The Black Slave Owner and America’s Pivot to Lifetime Slavery

The story of American slavery often begins with a simple, brutal binary: white masters and black slaves. But the truth is far more complex and unsettling. In the early 17th century, the path to freedom for Africans in the colonies was narrow, but it existed. Some, like Anthony Johnson, not only walked it but used it to become masters themselves. His story is the controversial catalyst in the tragic shift from indentured servitude to lifelong, hereditary slavery.

The Uncertain World of Indentured Servitude

Before the rigid caste system of race-based slavery was codified, labor in the Chesapeake was built on indentured servitude. This system bound poor Englishmen and Africans alike. In exchange for passage to America, they would work for a master for a contractually fixed period—typically four to seven years.

Upon completing their contract, these servants received “freedom dues” (often land, tools, or supplies) and could claim their place in colonial society. Status was dictated more by religion and class than skin color. Anthony Johnson, who arrived in 1621 as “Antonio, a Negro,” leveraged this system. He worked off his debt, gained his freedom, and acquired a 250-acre tobacco plantation, even owning servants of his own.

The Turning Point: Johnson v. Casor

The pivotal moment came in 1655 with the lawsuit Anthony Johnson v. John Casor. John Casor, a black laborer working for Johnson, claimed his indenture had expired years earlier and that he was being held illegally. Johnson contested this, arguing Casor was his servant for life.

The court’s ruling was a landmark. It sided with Johnson, stripping Casor of his freedom and legally declaring him a permanent slave. This was one of the first recorded instances in the English colonies where a person of African descent was declared a slave for life in a civil case. The ruling prioritized a black landowner’s property rights over the liberty of a black laborer, setting a dangerous legal precedent.

Did Anthony Johnson Own White Slaves?

A common question surrounds whether Johnson owned white slaves. The historical record indicates he and his family owned both black and white **indentured servants**, but not “slaves” in the lifelong sense for white individuals. The legal framework for holding white people as permanent, hereditary property did not exist. However, his ownership of white indentured servants highlights a critical point: in Johnson’s era, the exploitation of labor was a cross-racial project, though the permanent stain of chattel slavery was being reserved for Africans.

The Legal Slide from Servitude to Slavery

Johnson’s case did not happen in a vacuum. It was part of a broader, deliberate process where colonial assemblies passed laws that systematically eroded the rights of Africans.

1662: Virginia law decreed that children inherited the status of their **mother**, making the children of enslaved women slaves for life, regardless of the father’s race or status.
1667: A law declared that Christian baptism did not alter a person’s condition of servitude, closing a potential loophole to freedom.
1682: Comprehensive codes were enacted legally defining all non-Christian, non-European servants brought into the colony as **slaves for life**.

These laws, spurred by the economic need for a permanent, controllable labor force, slammed shut the door that Anthony Johnson had once walked through.

A Complicated and Controversial Legacy

Anthony Johnson’s legacy is a profound historical paradox. He was a man who escaped servitude to achieve the colonial dream of landownership and autonomy, yet he actively participated in constructing the very system that would enslave millions of his racial kin for centuries.

His story forces us to confront an uncomfortable truth: the architecture of American slavery was not built overnight by a single race. It was pieced together through a series of legal and economic choices that gradually defined freedom as the exclusive province of white people. Anthony Johnson, a black man, won his freedom and, in a tragic twist of history, used the courts to help deny it to others, cementing a brutal new reality in America.

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