I learned something new about America today. The professor told us a story about a man named Antonio, a negro. A small ship was in port doing some selling and trading. A man said he would sell his tobacco and other small items in exchange for some of the men on board to be indentured servants. It was agreed upon and Antonio worked for this man for several years. When he was done serving his time he was granted with 250 acres of land. Antonio eventually married, changed his name to Anthony Johnson, and became a land owner. He even ended up getting indentured servants of his own, some even being white. He was doing pretty good for himself.
This next part was a little fuzzy as when I researched the story later I couldn't find exactly what happened. Three men, two were white and one was black who were indentured servants, escaped from a plantation. I am not sure if it was the plantation was owned by Anthony Johnson or not. The men were captured. The white men were softly punished and given a few extra years to serve out as indentured servants. The black man was harshly punished and was sentenced for life as a slave on the plantation. This was one of the first documented cases of slavery in America. Anthony could tell that a division was starting to take place between the white and black people in that area and it wasn't looking good for the blacks. He packed up his wife and family and moved north to Maryland.
In several web sites I looked at it mentions a strife between an indentured servant, John Casor, and Anthony Johnson where John Casor was sentenced legally to be Johnson's slave for life. This was documented of a black man having a black slave.
After Johnson's death, Mary tried to take over her spouses property but was turned down by the government. Instead, the property was seized by white men and only smaller fields were left for her children. At this time the white men were starting to dominate and set up power in the south.
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