August 11, 2024 / 9 Minute Read
black slave masters
The height of academic and media fraud is revealed in the monopolistic trademark the official controllers of education and mass communications have successfully established between the definition of the word “slave” and the negro.
They Were White and They Were Slaves: Pg. 14
In Hidden History Vol.8, we discussed the unsung history of white slavery in early America.
Yes, you heard me right; white people were slaves too.
Aside from white slavery, perhaps an even more esoteric topic is the history of black slave masters in early America.
Throughout this article, we will discuss the history of one such black overseer by the name of Anthony Johnson.
all slaves are the same
Before we can begin to understand how certain blacks were able to become slave masters, we must first gain a better understanding of the true racial dynamics of early slavery.
Despite the modern narrative, in it’s early stages, American slavery was not race-based.
Not only in Virginia but also in New York, the first Blacks were integrated into a forced labor system that had little or nothing to do with skin color. That came later. But in the interim, a fateful period of primary importance in the history of America was occurring.
Black men and women worked side by side with the first generation of Whites, cultivating tobacco, clearing the land, and building roads and houses.
The Africans appear to have been treated as indentured servants. Racism may well have existed, but in the rush to profit, the color of a field laborer was a secondary consideration.
White Cargo: Pg. 170
The Africans who first arrived in the colonies were classified as indentured servants, not slaves. Like their white counterparts, they were bound to a master for a set period of time, after which they would be freed.
During this period, blacks and whites worked in harmony, being ruled by both white and, as we shall later, black slave masters.
early entrepreneurs
During the early days of colonial America, there were actually very few blacks within the slave labor force.
By the mid-seventeenth century, Africans numbered only 300 out of a total settler population of 11,000. From these small numbers emerged some stories of individual success.
After their indenture period expired, a handful of Africans went on to secure land of their own and prosper. Some black men of substance even acquired slaves of their own.
White Cargo: Pg. 171
Contemporary media constantly promotes the imagery of white masters lording over black servants.
Alas, this imagery is both inaccurate and deceptive.
Some Africans really did get that 40 acres and a mule. Not only that, but some even went on to become slave masters themselves, presiding over a workforce of both black and white servants.
This brings us to the curious case of Anthony Johnson.
the black planter
Anthony Johnson was one such African who made a name for himself after serving his indenture period. Upon gaining his freedom, Johnson went on to become a planter himself.
Becoming one of America’s first black entrepreneurs, he founded a plantation which he named Angola.
Anthony Johnson spent several years as a servant before being freed and allotted a tract of land to farm on the Pungoteague River.
Over the next three decades, he built a sizable land holding and imported more than a dozen servants, some white, some black.
Perhaps the only marked difference between Johnson and the white planters around him was the name he gave his plantation, calling it Angola.
White Cargo: Pg. 171
To many, Anthony Johnson will appear as a role model. A shining example of what blacks can accomplish given a fair shot.
To some of the more xenophobic members of the black community, he may even appear as some twisted savior, fulfilling their lustful fantasies of reverse racism.
However, as we shall soon learn, Anthony Johnson is anything but a hero.
not my brother’s keeper
Due to fear of interracial slave revolts and racism, the position of blacks began to deteriorate throughout the seventeenth century.
A major contributor to this drastic shift is found in the landmark court case between Anthony Johnson and one of his slaves named John Casor.
After 1640, the prospects overall for Africans were dwindling. The worsening position of the Africans manifested itself first in the lifetime enslavement of certain individuals. The earliest recorded cases are of men who were being punished for running away, and, what is more, for running away together with white servants.
Over the next decade, perpetual slavery of Africans evidently became common enough for the extraordinary story of John Casor. This was something of a test case, in which a black servant claimed his indenture period had expired years before and his master counter claimed that he was his servant for life.
The twist in this story is that the master seeking his lifetime sentence was Anthony Johnson.
White Cargo: Pg. 172, 174, 175
Here we have one of the earliest examples of “black on black” crime in America.
It seems as though Mr. Johnson adopted the same elitist mindset and lack of morality from the planters who once held him in bondage.
It is clear that Anthony Johnson viewed his servants as nothing more than property, and he refused to lose such property without a fight.
Johnson vs. Casor was fought out in the early 1650s. Casor had fled Anthony Johnson’s Angola Plantation and sought refuge with a neighboring planter. The runaway insisted that he had been held seven years beyond his indentured term. The neighbor believed Casor and kept him on his own plantation. Johnson was determined to get his property back and went to court.
The case dragged on for two years, presenting the bewildering sight of a white planter fighting a black planter to save a black servant from perpetual slavery.
In the end, Johnson triumphed. The Northampton County Court ruled that Casor had indeed been a slave all along and instructed that he be returned immediately to Johnson. Twenty years later, Casor was still owned by Mary Johnson, Anthony Johnson’s widow.
This was one of the first cases of lifetime slavery being imposed in North America – a black man playing one of the villains in the ghastly tragedy that was beginning to unfold.
White Cargo: Pg. 175
Anthony Johnson got what he wished for, retaining his slave and condemning a fellow black man to a life of horror and bondage.
Ironically, cases like Johnson vs. Casor contributed to the race-based shift in the American slave labor force. In the following decades, laws were passed that placed blacks at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
Blacks like Johnson who were already free remained so, but they began to be treated as second-class citizens by the emerging white elite. They also lost many legal rights, including the ability to own white slaves.
As blacks were continually de-platformed, they began to form the class of chattel slaves that we’re all too familiar with.
In the end, Johnson condemned not only himself, but also the future generations of blacks who would be forced to inherit a lifetime of bondage.
radical reparations
The slave trade worked in both directions with white merchandise as well as black.
They Were White and They Were Slaves: Pg. 11
In modern America, there is constant dialogue surrounding the issue of reparations.
Yet, when reviewing the history of white slaves and black slave masters, we find an unexpected twist in this conversation.
Remember, both whites and blacks served as slaves, just as both whites and blacks served as slave masters.
This means that if reparations were ever distributed, it wouldn’t solely entail whites paying blacks.
Yes, many whites would be forced to pay blacks.
However, there would also be whites paying other whites, blacks paying other blacks, and even the occasional black owing restitution to a white!
Imagine that. You’ve been fighting your whole life for reparations as a black person, only to find out that you’re actually descended from slave owners and you now owe some white guy a check.
In my view, this is the biggest reason why America will NEVER entertain the concept of slave reparations.
To justly distribute reparations, they’d have to expose the hidden history that they’ve tried so hard to strike from the record. A history of oppressed whites and well-off blacks.
lifting the veil
The infamous case of Anthony Johnson brings to naught an idea that has hindered Americans for generations.
The idea that slavery was restricted to blacks and slave ownership restricted to whites has proven false.
While small in number compared to their white counterparts, it is undeniable that some blacks rose to the ranks of planters and slave owners. Just as true is the fact that these early black entrepreneurs utilized both whites and blacks in their labor force.
So before you continue to preach the common tropes of white privilege and black victimhood…
Remember the story of Anthony Johnson.
To end, remember these key takeaways:
- Slavery in America was not always race-based. It did not become race-based until the mid/late 1600s.
- Most of the early blacks transported to America were indentured servants. Some of these blacks, after gaining their freedom, went on to become planters and slave masters themselves.
- Anthony Johnson was a black slave master who owned both white and black servants.
- Anthony Johnson’s case against his slave, John Casor, was one of the first examples of chattel slavery being instituted in America.
- If reparations were to ever be distributed, it wouldn’t solely entail whites paying blacks.
Bye Chance.
references
Hoffman, Michael A. They Were White and They Were Slaves: The Untold History of the Enslavement of Whites in Early America. The Independent History & Research Company, 1993.
Jordan, Don, and Michael Walsh. White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America. Mainstream Digital, 2011.
by chance 