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Anthony Johnson and His DescendentsPart1
click here to learn moreAnthony Johnson was an African slave. He was captured in his native land, Africa, and brought to England. There he was captured by pirates hidden in England. After a period of time he was shipped off to the colony of Virginia, here he converted from Catholicism to Protestant. There he worked for about 20 years of servitude. This was because in that time period they still referred to the Siete Partidas; -
Anhony Johnson and His Descendants Part 2
these were a set of laws proclaiming that it was unnatural for a Christian to be kept in bondage for their whole life. He acquired a piece of land and later two slaves. Skipping a few years ahead he won a court case against an Englishman, petitioning for his slave. He had four sons and livestock, Anthony Johnson truly made a made a lot of progress in his life. -
Anthony Johnson Acquires Land
Anthony Johnson acquires land. He and Captain Taylor went out, they divided up the land and came back. Anthony Johnson is quoted here, “…now I know my own ground and I will work when I please and play when I please,” This is important because it shows how Free Africans made progress earlier on, and were respected. -
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Anthony Johnson and his descendents
Anthony Johnson was an African slave. He was captured in his native land, Africa, and brought to England. There he was captured by pirates hidden in England. After a period of time he was shipped off to the colony of Virginia, here he converted from Catholicism to Protestant. There he worked for about 20 years of servitude. This was because in that time period they still referred to the Siete Partidas; these were a set of laws proclaiming that it was unnatural for a Christian to be kept in bond -
Anthony Johnson Wins a Court Case Against an Englishman
Anthony Johnson wins a court case against an Englishman. This was important to diminishing progress because it showed that an African could win against an Englishman and the judges were fair to Africans at this point in time. This also shows that the laws were a lot fairer to Africans. -
Baptism Does Not Exempt From Bondage
click here to learn moreThis law said that African slaves could no longer be baptized and be able to be freed after twenty years. This law starts the chain of laws that eventually lead to the slaves being treated like objects, priced, and later much more inhuman laws. -
An Act About the Casual Killing of Slaves
click here to learn moreThis law is also important because it was mostly forced by the law before it, (baptism does not exempt from bondage) it was forced by the fact that plantation owners used to punish their slaves by adding on years. Now they couldn’t do that, they had to do it in a physical way. -
An Act About the Casual Killing of Slaves.
An act about the casual killing of slaves, this law said that if your slave did something bad and you punished them (beating, cutting off limbs, plenty of other horrific/disgusting things) and they just happened to die, you wouldn’t be accused of murder. Imagine what it was like on the plantations during the summer; hot, lots of mosquitos, plenty of diseases, plenty of ways to get an infection. If slaves got an infection to in the part not covered with skin chances were they would die. This law -
An Act About Runaways Part 2
click here to learn more(Probably after being punished) What’s more the lawmakers forced this law to happen, the slaves had to run away to get away from slavery, because of the law about baptism. Also they could be punished and possibly killed because of the law about casual killing. -
An Act About Runaways Part 1
Of all the laws this is probably the worst. It puts a price on the slaves, it forces the Indians to get slaves, and pays people to bring their slaves back to them slaves. Even worse it says that the people rounding up the slaves (bounty hunters) if the slaves resist, they have permission to be hurt. To make this even worse it says that if they die or are hurt, the bounty hunters will still be paid. For hurting a slave! If the slave lives it will be put back to work. -
Conclusion Part 1
to learn more go toElie Wiesel said that “Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in Jeopardy, National boarders and sensitivities become irrelevant. When men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must- at that moment-become the center of the universe.” This is nothing but the truth, if a human life is endangered because people around them think otherwise, someone no matter who they are needs to step in. -
Conclusion Part 2
click here to learn moreIf someone had stepped in just once the whole history of slavery would have been changed, Anthony Johnsons descendents would have been able to have rights and lives like he did. Slaves wouldn’t have suffered half as much as they did. The United States wouldn’t have been un-united. Take this into your own life today, will you do this? Will you step in?
