Posted on 02/10/2019 6:37:02 PM PST by NoLibZone
"Just 90 miles from here in 1619, the first indentured servants from Africa landed on our shores in Ole Point Comfort," Northam said
Embattled Virginia Governor, Ralph Northam (D-VA), referred to people that came to America as slaves from Africa as “indentured servants from Africa” during an interview with CBS News’ Gayle King on Sunday.
Northam sat down with King for his first interview since the Virginian-Pilot published a photo from Northam’s medical school yearbook showing “two men, one in blackface and one in a Ku Klux Klan robe and hood, on the same page as the governor.”
King asked Northam where he would like to begin, pointing out that it had been a difficult week for the people of Virginia.
“Well, it has been a difficult week, and you know if you look at Virginia’s history, we’re now at the 400-year anniversary. Just 90 miles from here in 1619, the first indentured servants from Africa landed on our shores in Ole Point Comfort, what we call now Fort Monroe,” Northam said
“Also known as slavery,” King interjected.
(Excerpt) Read more at ntknetwork.com ...
If you want to believe that Africans in the 16th Century signed themselves into indentured servitude of their own free will, knowing and understanding what the document said, the way the Irish and the Scotts who signed such agreements did, then you go right on believing that.
Hey, you missed Henry Northam.
I doubt it. OTOH:
While I’m none too eager to come down on the side of Virginia’s moonwalking Governor Northam, everyone might want to study the history of Virginia before condemning him. Chattel slavery did not exist in the early colonial years, Africans were in fact indentured servants up to the case of Anthony Johnson and John Casor. After that ill-fated legal decision, chattel slavery began, in 1655.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/horrible-fate-john-casor-180962352/
Whether the Africans knew what they were being signed up for, the fact remains that for 4 decades they were able to complete the indenture period and claim land prescribed by law and the papers they had. Also, having read some Irish and English history, it is clear the Protestant Cromwell was happy to banish Catholic Irish to the Colonies as indentured servants, or transported for life. I imagine those transported were not happy about it, but whether African or European. I imagine the alternative was imprisonment or even execution. It was important to have that document so you would be free at the end of the time written and receive the benefits of land and tools that were specified therein.
The mistake I made was in forgetting that the get off my lawn wing of Free Republic has little interest in taking out the DNC.
Amazing!
Whether the Africans knew what they were being signed up for, the fact remains that for 4 decades they were able to complete the indenture period and claim land prescribed by law and the papers they had.
Utterly amazing!
Historical accuracy is apparently of utmost importance when a Democrat is in the process of hoisting himself on his own petard.
Other times, not so much!
Des are DENTED servants. Or Demented.
Ralphie must’ve put his brain out with that Red Ryder.
Northam was right. Also, the first slave owner in America was a black man:
John Casor was legally declared a slave for life on March 8th, 1655, thus becoming the first person ever to receive this treatment.
Indentured servants
Britain’s first colony in North America was Virginia. There, the officials of this state offered land for free to those colonist who would bring more colonists to Virginia. Many people were ready to take advantage of this offer, but they couldn’t afford the cost of the trip across the ocean. In order to attract more people, the wealthy colonists of Virginia offered to pay the expenses of the voyage for those who will work for them to repay the debt. The term for people who paid for their journey through labor was ‘indentured servants.‘ Most of these servants learned a trade during the time in which they worked for the debt, and they could earn money through it after the debt was repaid.
One of the first servants to clear his debt was an African named Anthony Johnson who worked from 1619 to 1623 and attained his freedom this way.
Anthony Johnson was from Angola and was one of the first black colonists in America. After gaining his freedom and becoming a “free N*gro,” Johnson soon acquired 250 acres of land and started farming it.
Source: www.pbs.org
During these four years, he became an accomplished tobacco planter and later employed five indentured servants of his own, one of them being John Casor. For bringing in servants, Johnson was given another 250 acres of land as headrights.
After completing seven years of his service, Casor asked for his freedom, which he was refused by Johnson. But, in the mid-time Johnson was persuaded by his family members to allow John Casor to work for a white colonist named Robert Parker.
Johnson v Parker
Johnson didn’t stick to his decision and chose to take matters to court and demand that John Casor is returned to him for service. County Court of Northampton County, Virginia decided to give the ownership to Johnson on March 8th, 1655 after Johnson claimed that Parker took his “n*gro servant” and that by rights “Thee had ye N*gro for his life.”
Source: thegrio.com
Lifelong slave – John Casor
John Casor was returned to Johnson, and as result of this decision, he was the first person ever to be legally declared a slave. Another consequence of this is that Anthony Johnson this way become the first slaveholder in the history of the United States. Casor remained a servant to Johnson for the rest of his life. What Johnson did was a precedent that led to the years of slavery in North America.
Legal implications of the court’s decision were vast, as it set several precedents. It was the first recorded instance of a man being declared slave without committing a crime. John Punch, who was declared indentured servant for life previously has earned his sentence by trying to escape his servitude, and the court found him guilty of breaching the contract. Casor, on the other hand, hasn’t done anything wrong. Several laws were based on his case namely the 1670 act barring “free and baptized n*groes and Indians” from owning Christians, meaning white Europeans. They did, however, retain the right to purchase members of their own race as slaves.
As racism became more prevalent in Virginia, Johnson decided to sell his farm and move to Maryland, where he leased 300 acres for tobacco growing.
After his passing in 1670, Johnson’s 300 acres were passed to white colonists and not to his children. The reason was that as a black man Anthony Johnson was not a citizen of the colony.
By this time, the slave trade was developing into a major business, and slave ships brought more and more African men and women to satisfy the ever-growing need for labor in the colonies. Having other black men as slave owners was considered a bad example that may provoke other slaves to revolt, so in 1699, the Virginia Assembly passed the law expelling all “free N*groes” from the colony, thus declaring that only way for an African to live in Virginia is to be a slave.
https://foreignpolicyi.org/john-casor-the-case-of-the-first-slave/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Johnson_(colonist)
The guy is a disgrace. As he said from his own mouth: fhe electorate in VA need to "make him 'comfortable'", until they politicaly euthanize him.
Who knew Irish slaves we black? Were they in black face?
Thanks. Several others pointed that out, too. I was completely unaware of that and indeed that’s an interesting and surprising bit of history.
Yeah and the Americas was not the only place that slaves were traded but to hear the Africans talk, America is the only place that did this to them.
I thought this was the BYU team...
Then take it back!
Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead!
I am a taxpayer for life.
What’s that make me??
Damn that TRUMP!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.