BHM Day Fourteen: John Casor, America’s First Slave

This legal document dating back to August 1670 comes from Virginia where the courts ruled that lands belonging to newly-deceased Anthony Johnson should rightfully be reverted back to England. Johnson was of African descent, and according to English law, would always be legally an alien. In light of his death, the lands should go to England, not his family.

Being an African in the early Americas was a tricky situation, and the relationship between Anthony Johnson and John Casor made it even moreso.

Anthony Johnson was captured in his native Angola and sold to a merchant in the Virginia Company. He arrived in the colony of Virginia aboard the James in 1621 as an indentured servant. Christians believed they had the right to enslave persons of any race who were not Christians, but only for a certain period of time or until they converted to Christianity. Such was the basis for indentured servitude. Johnson, known then as “Antonio,” was sold to a white tobacco farmer named Bennett, who later let Johnson farm a plot of his own land after his servitude contract was up.

By 1635, Johnson (and his wife who had arrived to the same plantation as an indentured servant in 1623) were free and went on to purchase 250 acres of land in Northampton, VA, the first African landowners in the county. They became wealthy enough to also purchase 5 indentured servants of their own. Under the headright system, they were entitled to an additional 250 acres of land for their servants, one of whom was John Casor.

In 1653, John Casor felt his contract of servitude was up. Having been “employed” by Johnson for 7 or 8 years, Casor demanded to be set free. Initially, Johnson resisted, but relented after being persuaded by his wife and son-in-law. Casor went on to work for Robert Parker, a white colonist. Under the headright system, each new person in the colony was afforded 50 acres of land. For an indentured servant, that land went to the employer until the contract of servitude was up. Fearing that the colony may relinquish his lands if his servants ended their contracts, Johnson sued Parker for illegally detaining his negro servant. Parker and his brother, George, testified that Casor had come to him as a freed indentured servant, while Johnson took the position that he had Casor for life. In Johnson vs. Parker, the County of Northampton sided with Johnson and Casor became his servant for life, spending the remainder of his years as the first legally recognized slave in what is now the USA.

In 1665, Johnson, along with his family and servants, moved to Maryland to start Tories Vineyards with 300 acres of land on a 99-year-lease. He and his wife sold 200 acres of his land in Virginia to a white colonist and left the remaining 50 acres to their son Richard. After his death in 1670, the county ruled that since Johnson was not legally a citizen of the county, his lands should revert back to England. The above document reads as follows:

By virtue of a writt granted to me from [names listed here, which are illegible] John Stringer Escheator for the countys of Northhampton and Accomack to enquire what lands Anthonio Johnson late of Accomack County either in his life tyme… a jury of free… in the said Accomack County to enquire… doth declare that the said Anthony Johnson lately deceased in his life tyme was seized of fifty acres of land now in the possession of Rich. Johnson in the County of Accomack aforesaid and further that the said Anthony Johnson was a negro and by consequence an alien and for that cause the said land doth escheat to this…

[source of translation]

After becoming the first African landowner in the county, a wealthy farmer, a successful businessman, and the first permanent slave owner laying the foundation for an economy that built this country, white colonists ruled that Johnson, being of African descent, was forever an alien in the colony and not entitled to land rights after death.

Casor’s status as the first legal slave in America set forth a chain of events that forever changed history. Courts ruled that, as in England, birthrights were passed through the mother. Children of slave women were slaves. Children of free women were free, leading to interesting legalities when white women became pregnant by black slaves. By the end of the 1600s, the Atlantic Slave Trade had taken full shape and the colonies were importing more and more slaves to meet the demand of labor. In 1699, Virginia ordered all free blacks evicted from the colony, thereby leaving the legal status of all blacks firmly locked in slavery.

An indentured servant from Africa forced another African servant into legalized slavery in order to secure 50 acres of land that would eventually be stripped from his family after his death.

Greed never ends well.