Question

How does the story of Anthony Johnson and his family reflect the change of legal status of African Americans in Virginia in the 1600s?

Answer 1

In 1665, Anthony Johnson moved to Maryland and leased a 300-acre plantation, where he died five years later. But back in Virginia that same year, a jury decided the land Johnson left behind could be seized by the government because he was a "negroe and by consequence an alien." In 1705 Virginia declared that "All servants imported and brought in this County... who were not Christians in their Native Country... shall be slaves. A Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves ... shall be held to be real estate."

Answer 2

August of that year, however, an all-white jury ruled that Anthony's original land in Virginia could be seized [ from his surviving family] by the state “because he was a Negroe and by consequence an alien.” And fifty acres. By 1651, Johnson gained his freedom and acquired land and servants, eventually attaining legal ownership “for life” over a Black man named John Casor, a condition that separated servitude