John Casor was not, however, permitted to enjoy long his freedom. Johnson
decided to petition the county court to determine whether John Casor was a
slave for life or a servant "for seven years of indenture." The court
record of the suit is as follows:
Whereas complaint was this daye made to ye court by ye humble peticion
of Anth. Johnson Negro ag[ains]t Mr. Robert Parker that hee detayneth
one John Casor a Negro the plaintiffs Serv[an]t under pretense yt
the sd Jno. Casor is a freeman the court seriously considering &
maturely weighing ye premises doe fynd that ye sd Mr. Robert Parker
most unrightly keepeth ye sd Negro John Casor from his r[igh]t
mayster Anth. Johnson as it appeareth by ye Deposition of Capt. Samll
Gold smith & many probable circumstances. be it therefore ye
Judgement of ye court & ordered that ye sd Jno. Casor negro, shall
forthwith bee turned into ye service of his sd master Anthony Johnson
and that the sd Mr. Robert Parker make payment of all charges in the
suite and execution.[5]
In thus sustaining the claim of Anth. Johnson to the perpetual service of
John Casor the court gave judicial sanction to the right of Negroes to own
slaves of their own race. Indeed no earlier record, to our knowledge, has
been found of judicial support given to slavery in Virginia except as a
punishment for crime. Additional gleanings from the records show that this
black slavemaster was a respected citizen of wealth and one of the very
earliest Negro arrivals upon this continent, if, indeed, he was not one of
the first twenty brought in on the Dutch man-of-war in 1619. Every doubt
of the correctness of this assertion should be banished by a perusal of the
somewhat detailed evidence upon which the conclusion is based.
The discovery of the fact that Anthony Johnson was a slaveowner led to a
further examination of court records and land patents for additional
information concerning him. In the court records of Northampton County in
1653 it was found recorded that "Anth. Johnson negro hath this daye made
his compl[ain]t to ye court that John Johnson, Senr. most unrightly
detayneth a pattent of his for 450 acres of land (which pattent sd. Jno.
Johnson negro claymeth & boldly affirmeth to bee his land."[6]
A search in the early land patents of the State revealed a grant by the
authorities of the State of two hundred and fifty acres of land in
Northampton County to Anthony Johnson a Negro. The grant was made as "head
rights" upon the importation by the Negro of five persons into the
colony.[7] Still pursuing the record of this black freeman, who was able to
maintain a slave, the following was discovered in the records of the county
court of Northampton:
Upon ye humble pet[ition] of Anth. Johnson negro & Mary his wife &
their Information to ye Court that they have been Inhabitants in
Virginia above thirty years, consideration being taken of their hard
labor and honored service performed by the petitioners in this
Country for ye obtayneing of their Livelyhood and ye great Llosse
they have sustained by an unfortunate fire with their present charge
to provide for. Be it therefore fitt and ordered that from the day of
the debate hearof during their natural lives the sd Mary Johnson &
two daughters of Anthony Johnson Negro be disingaged and freed from
payment of Taxes and leavyes in Northampton County for public use.[8]
Subtracting thirty years from 1652, the date of this order of the court, it
appeared that this Negro and his wife were in Virginia in 1622. Examination
of a census taken in Virginia after the Indian massacre of 1622 and called
"The Lists of Living and Dead in Virginia" revealed the fact that there
were only four Negroes in the colony beside the surviving nineteen out of
the twenty that came in in 1619. The name of one of these four was Mary and
the name of one of the first twenty was Anthony.[9] It may with good reason
be surmised, if it cannot be proved, that Mary became the wife of Anthony
and that in the course of the next thirty years they acquired the surname
Johnson as well as a large tract of land and a slave by the name of John
Casor.