cvan you elaborate for we historically challenged students?
(cvan is shorthand for “Please” and “I’m too lazy to use spell check”)
Anthony Johnson was a black man who came across from England as an indentured servant. Indentured servants were valued at more than slaves early on because the survival rate was very low. Usually the contract was the price of coming to the colony and when the contract time (usually 7 years) ended, the servant would be able to purchase their own land and make money as a tobacco farmer themselves. It was financially better because most of the time the servant didn’t survive the contract and the plantation owner could get more. After the survival rate increased, the plantation owners realized they would be having more competition, so they changed to slaves.
So, Anthony Johnson, a black man who worked out his contract and became his own plantation owner had slaves himself. A slave of his (John Casor I think?) ran away to a neighbor and the neighbor wouldn’t return him, not agreeing morally with slavery. Anthony Johnson sued the neighbor and won, making him the first legal case as a legal slaveowner ordained and recognized by the courts as the “owner” of John Casor.
This is how the first slaveowner in America was a black man.