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Historians frequently celebrate American blacks who broke racial barriers to become the 'first' in various fields. Most of us are aware that Jackie Robinson was the first black to play major league baseball, Phillis Wheatley was the first black American woman to publish a book of poetry, and Aunt Jemima was the first black woman to get kicked off a syrup label.
But when it comes to Anthony Johnson, the first black slave owner in America, historians abruptly need to use the garderobe.
Still, it is safe to declare Anthony Johnson to be the first black slave owner in the American colonies. Just don't tell Netflix. They'd make him a gay leprechaun.
While the historians are sequestered in the loo, let's dig in and find the truth about Anthony Johnson.
The real story of Anthony Johnson.
Amid the tobacco fields of 17th-century Virginia’s Eastern Shore, a remarkable transformation took place. A man who arrived in chains carved out a life of landownership and relative prosperity — only to play an unwitting role in the hardening of a system that would later ensnare millions.
From Captive to Freeholder
Anthony Johnson’s journey began far from the shores of North America. Born around 1600 in the Kingdom of Ndongo in present-day Angola, he was captured amid regional conflicts and the expanding Portuguese slave trade. In 1621, he reached Virginia aboard the ship James, recorded simply as “Antonio a Negro.”
Assigned to labor on the plantation of Richard Bennett (part of Edward Bennett’s holdings), Johnson endured the realities of colonial life. He survived the deadly 1622 Powhatan uprising that killed dozens on the estate where he worked. There, he met and married Mary, another African woman brought to the colony. Together, they navigated the hazy boundary between indentured servitude and lifelong bondage that characterized the colony’s earliest decades.
Still, it was a paradise compared to the prospects of being enslaved in their native Africa.
By the early 1640s, Johnson had secured his freedom — whether through completion of service or other means remains unclear in the sparse records. He adopted the English name Anthony Johnson and began acquiring property. In 1651, he patented 250 acres along Pungoteague Creek, a substantial holding earned in part through the headright system by importing indentured servants. He raised tobacco and livestock, employed both negro and Caucasian workers, and built a successful operation with his wife and their four children.
Dispute
In the early 1650s, a Caucasian man named John Casor, who had worked on Johnson’s plantation, departed and sought refuge with a neighboring white planter, Robert Parker. Casor insisted he had fulfilled his indenture — claiming seven or eight years plus additional time — and was being held unlawfully.
Johnson responded by filing a civil suit in Northampton County Court against Parker. The case hinged on whether Casor was bound by a fixed-term indenture or subject to permanent ownership.
On March 8, 1655, the court heard testimony, including from Captain Samuel Goldsmith. Goldsmith recounted visiting Johnson’s home months earlier when Casor approached him, demanding his freedom and stating he had served beyond his original term. When asked for the indenture document, Johnson reportedly replied that he had never seen one and maintained that Casor belonged to him for life.
The court ruled decisively in Johnson’s favor. It awarded Casor to Johnson and his heirs “to serve him or his heirs for the time of his natural life” and ordered Parker to pay court costs. This decision stands as one of the earliest documented colonial rulings to affirm lifelong servitude through civil litigation rather than statute.
A World in Transition
At the time of the ruling, Virginia’s labor system remained fluid. Europeans and Africans alike often worked under indenture contracts. Johnson himself employed Caucasian servants alongside negroes.
Johnson’s legal victory, while personal, contributed to the emerging legal architecture of perpetual servitude.
Later Years and a Fading Legacy
Johnson continued farming on the Eastern Shore until around 1665, when he and his family relocated to Somerset County, Maryland, seeking fresh opportunities. They patented additional land and sustained their agricultural life. Anthony Johnson died in 1670. His wife Mary and sons initially managed the estate, but subsequent generations proved to be less proficient than their patriarch.
Defying Narratives
Anthony Johnson’s life resists easy categorization. He rose from captive laborer to landowner in a society that allowed mobility for capable individuals regardless of origin, defying the accepted historical narrative the white Americans are inherently racists. He asserted property rights in a manner mirroring his white neighbors. Yet the precedent set in the Casor matter helped pave the way for the institutionalization of hereditary slavery that would dominate American life for generations.
His story illustrates how early colonial America was a place of possibility — a world where a former Angolan captive could win a landmark court case, even as the doors of opportunity began closing for people of African descent.
In the end, Anthony Johnson’s legacy is evidence that America is not, nor ever has been, the racist place leftist historians pretend it to be. So, the question is not, "How will history remember?" but "Who will write history?"
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Race and Belonging in Colonial America: The Story of Anthony Johnson
The Horrible Fate of John Casor, The First Black Man to be Declared Slave for Life in America
The Curious History of Anthony Johnson: From Captive African to Right-Wing Talking Point
The Impossible Story of an African Pioneer in Colonial America
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