July 24th marks the anniversary of Anthony Johnson acquiring 250 acres of land in Northampton County, Virginia during the summer of 1651. Anthony Johnson was a free black man, brought to the colony aboard the James in 1621. He had been captured in his native Angola. When he was initially sold to a white tobacco planter named Bennet, Johnson was known only as Antonio. Antonio was indentured to Bennet, the common practice of the time, meaning that he could work his way out of servitude after a period of hard labor (often seven years). Until the mid-1850s, in the American colonies, though indentured servants were often treated as roughly as slaves, the indentured servant could earn his or her freedom and there was no clear practice of lifetime slavery.
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