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Anthony Johnson (AD 1600 – 1670) was an Angolan who achieved freedom in the early 17th century Colony of Virginia. Johnson was captured in his native Angola by an enemy tribe and sold to Arab (Muslim) slave traders. He was eventually sold as an indentured servant to a merchant working for the Virginia Company. Sometime after 1635, Antonio and Mary gained their freedom from indenture. Antonio changed his name to Anthony Johnson. In 1651 Anthony Johnson owned 250 acres, and the services of four white and one black indentured servants. The black indentured servant John Casor (Casar, Cazarao and Corsala)...

Here’s something you won’t read about in the US history books. The first legal slave owner in America was black and he owned white slaves. Anthony Johnson (BC 1600 – 1670) was an Angolan who achieved freedom in the early 17th century Colony of Virginia. Johnson was captured in his native Angola by an enemy tribe and sold to Arab (Muslim) slave traders. He was eventually sold as an indentured servant to a merchant working for the Virginia Company. Sometime after 1635, Antonio and Mary gained their freedom from indenture. Antonio changed his name to Anthony Johnson. In 1651 Anthony...

Slavery inside Africa was rampant long before Europeans began their infamous slave trade routes. Huge numbers of Africans were enslaved by Africans and when the slave went astray from his Black master's wishes, the punishment was beyond cruel and unusual. Islam bought and sold/provided slaves under the rule of Islamic law. No one in the early known histories of the planet is void of slavery of one type or the other. In the American colonies of the 1600s, the first slave-for-life as ruled by a court, was owned by a former Black indentured servant, brought here from Angola. Photo: Anthony...

Slavery has been a part of man’s history since the beginning of recorded time. The pharaohs of Egypt used hundreds of thousands of African slaves to build the pyramids. The Romans used slaves from all over their empire to build their magnificent structures. The ancient Greeks used slaves to build the Parthenon and other palaces and temples. The Great Wall of China was built by Chinese slaves. When the Americas were discovered, slavery migrated with the people to the new world and was accepted like all the rest of the “old” world traditions. This acceptance lasted even through the drafting...