-
Period: to
Life of Anthony Johnson
The diminishing progress from when Anthony Johnson came to the colonies to when his sons inherited his property is evident. The legislature passed a system of laws far apart so that no one noticed until it was too late. They progressively took away the Negroes' rights and dehumanized them. -
Act 5- No Weapons
Before this law was passed, all people could own muskets and other firearms. I think that this law started the cycle by not allowing blacks to own weapons. They could not defend themselves. They could not hunt for food. This law increased the Africans reliance on white merchants. They now had to buy food from other people. Whites could overcharge them. -
Case A- Johnson gets land
Anthony Johnson gets land to farm from one Captian Taylor. He enters the courtroom talking with Captian Taylor about corn. Anthony:"Mr. Taylor and I have divided our corn and I am very glad for it, for now I know my own ground." Capt. Taylor then asked, "Are you content with what you have?" Johnson repiled "Yes, I am content with what I have." This finilzed Johnson's ownership of the land. This ties in to diminishing progress by showing that Johnson could own land and buy land. -
Act 7- Negros get their mother's status
The child of a slave who was female was a slave. In the English world, a child inherited his/her father's status. But this law changed that. Act XII- "All negro children borne in this country shalbe held according to the condition of the mother." Now a black child, who's mother was a slave, was a slave for life. They no longer inherited their father's status, even if he was free. This tied in to Act 3 some years later by helping to narrow slaves chances down. -
Act 3- Baptism
With the passage of this law, Christian blacks could not be free.
Act III- "The connefering of baptisime doth not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or ffreedome." Before, it was encouraged for blacks to be baptized, but they now could not be free if they were. Landowners were encoraged to baptize them. This tied in by again narrowing down the amount of slaves that could one day become free. -
Act 12- All Negros are now property
This act declared all negros in the colonies to be property from October foward. Act XXII- "All negro, mullato, and Indian slaves are hearforth reat estate." This means that slaves are now no longer human (in slaveowner's eyes). They can now be treated like chattel and sold and bought. This is how it was going for a while before, but this act made it officialy legal. This act finilzed the treatment of slaves until the Civil War, 160 years later.
