1st Slave Court Case in US History (legal, Maryland, governor)

[michiganmoon]

Anthony Johnson was one of the first slaves brought to English North America in the year 1621. Although he was a slave for life, he was able to purchase his freedom. He prospered in freedom and bought a slave named John Casor.

Johnson's white neighbor encouraged Casor to run away in the year 1655 when Casor had a disagreement with Johnson. When captured, Casor claimed that he was an indentured servant and had already served his years, the court disagreed and made Casor a slave again to the black Johnson.

Moreover, the court fined Johnson's white neighbor, Robert Barker, for encouraging the enslaved Casor to run away to freedom and made him pay for Johnson's court fees.

https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/dbva/items/show/126

[ChiGeekGuest]

Before the above referenced case was the case of John Punch. He was an enslaved African man who lived in Virginia & was thought to have been an indentured servant. He, like many others, attempted to escape to Maryland. He was sentenced in July 1640 by the Virginia Governor's Council to serve as a slave for the remainder of his life. Two European men who ran away with him received a lighter sentence of extended indentured servitude.

For this reason, some historians consider John Punch the "first official slave in the English colonies,"[5] and his case as the "first legal sanctioning of lifelong slavery in the Chesapeake."[3] Some historians also consider this to be one of the first legal distinctions between Europeans and Africans made in the colony,[6] and a key milestone in the development of the institution of slavery in the United States.[7]

John Punch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Punch_(slave)

Runaway Slaves and Servants in Colonial Virginia

https://encyclopediavirginia.org/ent...nial-virginia/