America's Barbaric History

Accuracy in Academia ^ | April 28, 2010 | Malcolm A. Kline

[csmusaret]

I just put that extra s in there in case somebody needs one.

[wtc911]

He was purchased by a free black man, Anthony Johnson. This occurred in Virginia, in 1619.

_________________________________________

How did Anthony Johnson get here?

[RegulatorCountry]

How did Anthony Johnson get here?

He was an indentured servant. He'd served out his indenture, typically seven to ten years, and got his "headrights" which was land, same as so many other indentured servants, most of whom were from the British Isles. Johnson got 250 acres.

The headrights system collapsed around 1680 for a variety of reasons, leading to the demise of indentured servitude and the rise of the African slave trade. Legalities had begun to slowly shift prior to this, but African indentured servants had been regarded as somewhat exotic and almost a status symbol in comparison to British or Irish ones, odd as that sounds.

Anthony Johnson nearly died when his 250 acre farm was attacked during the Second Powhatan War of 1622. I'm not sure of descendants, but he had married another formerly indentured African, a woman named Juana or Juanita.

[wtc911]

thanks.

[MamaTexan]

The very first officially state-recognized slave was in Virginia. In 1654, Anthony Johnson, a black man, convinced a court that his servant (also black) John Casor was his for life. Johnson himself had been brought to Virginia some years earlier as an indentured servant, but he saved enough money to buy out the remainder of his contract and that of his wife.

[Nowhere Man]

I've heard of the story of Roxelana in the 16th Century where she was a Polish girl (although where she was born, it is part of the Ukraine now) taken into captivity by the Crimean Tatars and sold into slavery into a Turkish harem in Istanbul. She was later freed and became one of his wives.

Roxelana

So the street goes both ways.



Roxelana and the Sultan painted by German Baroque artist, Anton Hickel (1780)