John Casor: First Man Enslaved?

by Grace Kostrzebski

The first Africans arrived on the shores of the American colonies in 1619. Most arrived enslaved with a smaller number arriving as indentured servants. However, even as enslaved people or indentured servants, Africans and African Americans were able to attain their freedom – albeit in small numbers. Yet as the population of the colonies grew, enslaved or indentured Africans’ chances to obtain this freedom were limited. Laws increasingly hostile to African Americans and their struggle to gain freedom soon became fully established. This culminated in the 1691 law passed by the General Assembly that outlawed both interracial marriage and required the deportation of all free Africans and African Americans from Virginia.  

John Casor – and his freedom – was caught between these changing attitudes. Anthony Johnson, possibly originally from the west coast of Angola, had bought his freedom and established himself as a powerful landowner as a free Black man. In 1653, Casor filed a lawsuit against Johnson for his freedom. Casor claimed that he had been brought to the Americas with a contract of seven or eight years and that he had served those years. Initially, Johnson refused, but later “…his Sonne in lawe, his wife and his 2 sonnes perswaded the said Anthony Johnson to sett the said John Casor free” (Northampton County Order Book, 1655). Casor was free. 

Yet in 1654, Johnson sued a white colonist who had employed Casor – claiming that the colonist had unfairly detained him. Johnson, using his social capital as a wealthy landowner, argued that Casor was still obligated to work for him, and the court agreed. Casor was re-enslaved. John Punch was the first African enslaved due to a crime. But John Casor was the first African enslaved – for seemingly no reason at all. 

Johnson and his family left Virginia and settled in Maryland about ten years after the original lawsuit. Casor, as the Johnsons’ enslaved servant, travelled with them. He remained enslaved for the rest of his life. Johnson died in 1670. Despite his vast estate and wealth, Johnson’s property was passed to a white colonist instead of his descendants as the court declared he was not “a citizen of the colony.” In the same year, a bill had been passed restricting free Black men from purchasing the contracts of white indentured servants. Racial divides deepened – and slavery was slowly becoming based on race.