Anthony Johnson was NEVER a slave; he was an indentured servant, and probably gained his freedom about 1623 or 24. There are scattered instances of people claiming blacks as slaves in Virginia in the 1630s but no formal recognition of it. In 1640 a court sentenced John Punch to lifetime servitude for running away, but there was no system of "slavery." My best guess is that Punch was a victim of racism and opportunism or that he had run away before and the court simply gave him a life sentence for running away too often. The record is unclear and the answer is not fully clear.
In 1656 a court held that a black man was "a slave" and he appealed. But as late as the 1670s Virginia court held that some blacks had been brought to the colony as indentured servants and were entitled to be free.
However, the first "formal" recognition of slavery in VA was the passaged of this law in 1660. "An Act for the Dutch and other Strangers for Tradeing to this Place," Act XVI, March 1659-60 (1 Hening's Statutes 540). The law was passed in 1660 according to modern dating systems and 1659 according to the older (Julian) Calendar, when New Year's Day was March 25.
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On Tuesday, May 7, 2019 07:58:34 AM EDT, Boris Sokolovsky <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Since there were no laws regarding slavery for life(all "slaves" were
brought in as indentured servants with time restricted contracts) what was
the first established by law case of slavery?
Many resources point at the Johnson vs Parker case.
Can you clarify the issue?
On Mon, May 6, 2019 at 1:11 PM Paul Heinegg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> No, but he may have been the first slave owned by a former slave.
>
> Casor sued for his freedom from former slave Anthony Johnson in
> Northampton
> County, Virginia, in 1653, but Johnson insisted that "hee had ye Negro for
> his life" [Orders, Deeds, Wills, 1651-54, 226].
> John Casor/ Cazara travelled with the Johnson family to Somerset County,
> Maryland, where he recorded his livestock mark in court, with the consent
> of
> Anthony's widow Mary Johnson [Archives of Maryland, 54:760-1].
> He was a witness (signing) to her power of attorney by which she assigned
> her son John Johnson authority over her property in Virginia [Somerset
> County Judicial Record, 1671-75, 159-62].
> Paul
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Boris Sokolovsky
> Sent: Saturday, May 04, 2019 3:14 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [VA-HIST] John Casor
>
> Was John Casor one of the first legal black slave?
>
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