The United States First Slave Owner Was A Black Man Named Anthony Johnson

America’s first slave owner was a black man

According to colonial records, the first slave owner in the United States was a black man named Anthony Johnson.

Only Known Picture Of Anthony Johnson

Prior to 1655 there were no legal chattel slaves in the colonies, only indentured servants. All masters were required to free their servants after their time was up. Seven years was the limit that an indentured servant could be held. Upon their release they were granted 50 acres of land. This included any black African purchased from slave traders. Blacks were also granted 50 acres upon their release.

Anthony Johnson was a Negro from modern-day Angola. He was brought to the US to work on a tobacco farm in 1619. In 1622 he was almost killed when Powhatan Indians attacked the farm. 52 out of 57 people on the farm perished in the attack. He married a female black servant while working on the farm.

When Anthony was released he was legally recognized as a “free Negro” and ran a successful farm. In 1651 he held 250 acres and five black indentured servants. In 1654, it was time for Anthony to release John Casor, a black indentured servant. Instead Anthony told Casor he was extending his time. Casor left and became employed by the free white man Robert Parker.

Anthony Johnson sued Robert Parker in the Northampton Court in 1654. In 1655, the court ruled that Anthony Johnson could hold John Casor indefinitely. The court gave judicial sanction for blacks to own members of their own race as chattel slaves. Thus Casor became the first permanent slave and Johnson the first slave owner.

Whites still could not legally hold a black servant as a chattel slave until 1670. In that year, the colonial assembly passed legislation permitting free whites, blacks, and Indians the right to own blacks as slaves.

By 1699, the number of free blacks prompted fears of a “Negro insurrection.” Virginia Colonial ordered the repatriation of freed blacks back to Africa. Many blacks sold themselves to white masters so they would not have to go to Africa. This was the first effort to gently repatriate free blacks back to Africa. The modern nations of Sierra Leone and Liberia both originated as colonies of repatriated former black slaves.

However, black slave owners continued to thrive in the United States.

By 1830 there were 3,775 black families living in the South who owned black slaves. By 1860 there were about 3,000 slaves owned by black households in the city of New Orleans alone.

Notes:

#1 Before the U.S. was the U.S. the present day U.S. was a British Colony up until 1776. The indentured servants talked about were not slaves and were transported to the then British Colonies by the "Rich" for the "Rich" to act as housekeepers and servants to the wealthy. These indentured servants black and white did this of their own "Free Will". After their service was done they were rewarded with land or monetary payments. This is what "Indentured Is" and was accepted by people that were indentured. Whites were indentured servants also just as much as black people were.

#2 The fear of black insurrection was the blacks "Rioting" and destroying property just as they are doing now in 2015 and have been doing since the 1960's when the black and white separation laws were abolished. The burning down of towns by blacks most likely was a big problem way back when the now present day U.S. was a British Colony. History shows poor whites were treated just like any black was treated by wealthy whites. The whites just used the money they earned and had wisely to improve themselves and the future for their children and did not burn down towns or destroy the property of others. The few blacks that did what the whites did and spent their money wisely ended up doing just as well as the whites and as the article states, "Thousands Upon Thousands Of Black Families Owned Slaves Too".

#3 The mass hauling of blacks to the U.S. by the British didn't happen until decades later when British business got involved for cheap labor and profits for the "Booming Textile" industry in England when cotton was being grown in the now U.S. and shipped back to England for processing. The British royalty started purchasing blacks from, "Black African Leaders" in Africa. The Black African Leaders liked selling off the people that were causing trouble for them. Black African countries were doing, "Ethnic Cleansing" and creating a nice profit to boot. African slaves in the U.S. "Were Never Kidnapped" but instead "Purchased". The popular thought about African slaves being kidnapped from Africa just isn't the truth.

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