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It has been widely claimed, that an African former indentured servant who settled in Virginia in 1621, Anthony Johnson, became one of the earliest documented slave owners in the mainland American colonies when he won a civil suit for ownership of John Casor.
Mar 14, 2016 · White Supremacist groups have claimed that Anthony Johnson, a Black forced laborer who became free in 17th century Virginia, was the first legal slave owner in the British colonies that became the United States. That claim is historically false and misleading.
Dec 14, 2010 · Anthony Johnson was the first prominent black landholder in the English colonies. Johnson arrived in Virginia in 1621 aboard the James. It is uncertain if Johnson arrived as an indentured servant or as a slave, early records list him as “Antonio, a Negro.”
Historical records show that Anthony Johnson, a freed slave, became a wealthy landowner in colonial Virginia. Yet historians have different ideas about how to interpret his success. They ask: Did other former slaves own large estates? Or was Johnson unique?
Dec 7, 2020 · On March 8, 1655, the Northampton County Court ruled in favor of Anthony Johnson, a free man of African descent, when he was accused of keeping an indentured servant as a slave.
Aug 19, 2019 · Anthony Johnson arrived in Virginia in 1621. He farmed other people’s land in the new English colony before he acquired land of his own and wealth. He married Mary, had children — two daughters and two sons — and passed on his own property to his heirs before his death in 1670.
It's not clear whether he was an indentured servant (a servant contracted to work for a set amount of time) or a slave. Anthony nearly lost his life in the spring of 1622.
