Posted on 06/17/2020 10:56:08 PM PDT by BeauBo
Anthony Johnson was not the first slave owner in Virginia.
De Soto owned four Indian slaves and they were auctioned upon his death—in Arkansas, North America
The 16th-century Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto (c. 1496-1542) arrived in the West Indies as a young man and went on to make a fortune in the Central American slave trade.
Bkmk
Slavery was rampant in North and South America long before the eeeeevil invader Christopher Columbus. Cannibalism and (especially with the Mayans) human sacrifice.
But all that, of course, is Trump’s fault.
Appreciate knowing Which links ? Which pages ?
Thank You
Save — good info.
Opps...Should have reviewed last posting sorry
Both my links have typos
Slave Trade
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3818053/posts
Indian Slave Traders/owners
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3856486/posts
1600, Born in Angola.
1620, Captured and sold to the Virginia Company, which was one of the first companies on earth. (Est 1606, and the first-ever, the Dutch East India Company, was founded in 1602.)
1620, Shipped across the Atlantic (and survived!), then sold in Virginia as an indentured servant. (Slave laws were not passed until 1661 in Virginia.. see below... and most white laborers in this period also came to the colony as indentured servants.)
1622, the Powhatan Indians attacked his plantation on Good Friday and killed 52 of the 57 men working there. Anthony was one of the 5 to survive. (I'm starting to think he was something of a bad-ass.)
1623, Mary was brought to work on the same plantation as Antonio. She was the only woman. Out of 32 men, she chose Anthony. (So he is a bad-ass, AND a Ladies' Man!)
1635, Antonio and Mary gained their freedom from indenture. (Most indentures were for 7 years. Apparently, he took on Mary's 7 years as well, and worked until they were both free. Devoted husband!!) They were married for over 40 years.
1651, he acquired 250 acres of land under the headright system by buying the contracts of five indentured servants. Those 5? The first was his own son... and the other four were WHITE laborers. (Tell me Hollywood wouldn't have another Django Unchained orgasm over that!!)
1652, "an unfortunate fire" caused significant losses for the farm. Johnson applied to the courts for tax relief. The court reduced the family's taxes AND exempted his wife Mary and their two daughters from paying taxes at all "during their natural lives." At that time taxes were levied on people, not property. This change gave them the same social standing as white women, who were not taxed!!
All of this is BEFORE the world-changing court case that he is known for!!!!
1653, John Casor (a black indentured servant to Johnson) approached Johnson's neighbor, claiming his indenture had expired seven years earlier and that he was being held illegally by Johnson. The neighbor persuaded Johnson to free Casor. Within days, Casor was indentured to the neighbor! Feeling like he clearly got swindled, Johnson sues...
1655, the appellate court, finding that Anthony Johnson still "owned" John Casor, gave the world the first instance of a judicial determination in the Thirteen Colonies holding that a person who had committed no crime could be held in servitude for life.
(Casor was the first person declared a slave in a CIVIL case, but there were both black and white indentured servants sentenced to lifetime servitude before him.)
And his amazing life story STILL isn''t over...
1657, Johnson’s white neighbor forged a letter in which Johnson acknowledged a debt. Johnson did not contest the case. Johnson was illiterate and could not have written the letter... nevertheless, the court awarded the neighbor 100 acres of Johnson’s land to pay off his alleged "debt".
1658, Anthony and Mary Johnson were farming 250 acres and their two sons owned a total of 550 acres. Anthony is generally credited with helping many blacks learn how to become successful businessmen in the Colonies. Anthony Johnson has been referred to as "the black patriarch" of the first community of Negro property owners in America.
1660, Johnson moved his family to Somerset County MD, negotiating a 99 year lease a lease on 300 acres. He made it into a tobacco farm, which he named Tories Vineyards.
1670, Johnson dies. His plantation was given to a white colonist, not to Johnson's children. A judge had ruled that he was "not a citizen of the colony" because he was black.
Slavery was ended in the US by Christians and Republicans, who both fought and died to end the practice. Both groups are reflexively despised by Liberals today.
Democrats fought for Slavery, passed Jim Crow, opposed desegregation (including their current Presidential Candidate, as exposed by Kamala Harris), set a new record for filibusters while trying to block the 1964 Civil Rights Act... and Democrats comprised 72% of those Congresspersons who voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act...
And yet the Left tears down syrup logos and names for their mere association with those bad old days (Aunt Jemima was a common character in minstrel shows 100+ years ago)... while Liberals fervently and passionately support the Democrats and the Donkey mascot that presided and enforced the subjugation of blacks for well over a century. Amazing.
Sort of correct. Slavery laws didn't exist until 1661 in the Virginia Colony, so NOBODY was officially a slave before that date. They were indentured servants.
However, in 1957, Anthony Johnson WAS responsible for the first official Colonial Court finding that a person could be held in indenture for life without having committed a crime. That's pretty much the textbook definition of slavery. His case clearly set the pathway for the 1661 laws that were passed 4 year later.
And most white laborers who came to Virginia back then were also indentured servants.
But yes, lots of farmers and others had indentured servants before Anthony Johnson did. The King, to encourage further spread westward, would reward anyone who purchased an indentured servant contract with 50 acres more of land. Anthony Johnson acquired 250 acres under this rule, by purchasing 5 contracts.... the one for his son, and 4 others for four white men.
Well, for anybody in the movie business to touch it, they would have to leave out that he was enslaved by other blacks, traded as a slave by Muslims, the Powhatan Indians murderous brutality, the fact that Anthony owned 4 white indentured servants, and that he owned a black slave, five very un-PC facts. Once you take those out there isn't much of a story left.
many folks thin that only white racists owned slaves- it’s not true- One black slave owner owned nearly 60 slaves- some black folks were slave traders- I believe it was British folks that were brought here as slaves-
“When Europeans Were Slaves: Research Suggests White Slavery Was Much More Common Than Previously Believed
A new study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 – a far greater number than had ever been estimated before.
“One of the things that both the public and many scholars have tended to take as given is that slavery was always racial in nature – that only blacks have been slaves. But that is not true,” Davis said. “We cannot think of slavery as something that only white people did to black people.””
“beaubo”?
It’s a fact that whites were taken as slaves- many Christian white folks taken as slaves- indians owned slaves, mexicans did etc- Slavery is not a White racial issue only- it is now estimated that more whites were taken as slaves than were black folks
So, when the black folks get ‘reparations’ when will white folks get more reparations if that is the case?
Thanks so much for that interesting background.
It really evoked for me how life/society was different then and there.
“black tribes sold his (obviously black) ancestors ‘down the river’”
That was going on for centuries, before European colonization in the New World provided a new market for the slaves.
For most of the slave trade, muslims were the customers, and they ran the slave markets in the port cities.
Most of the slaves brought to America, were enslaved by black Africans, and simply purchased from muslim slave traders.
When the need for labor to develop colonies first developed, Africa already led the world in supplying slaves for sale.
Many of the elites in West Africa today (dominant tribes like the Ibo and Ashanti) rose to pre-eminence on the wealth they generated as slave raiders.
One notable feature of the African slave experience in what is now the United States, was their relatively high survival rate, as compared to rest of the New World.
Some Argentines are proud of the fact that so few of African descent survived there. Around the time of the US Civil War, a virtual genocide of the remaining black population in Argentina took place.
“Anthony Johnson was not the first slave owner in Virginia.”
I think they mean within the legal system - the legal precedent.
What do you mean? Who were the first?
sorry for unitended slight bob34.
I thought I was replying to beaubo.
thanx for your color.
[[thanx for your color.]]
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