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Timeline of Colonial Virginia diminishing progress
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Introduction
After being freed, Anthony Johnson was a successful slave owner for a few years. But that all changed when laws were made about slaves and what they could do. Today we call those laws diminnishing progress. The diminishing progress changed slavery into what we know it as today. -
Anthony Johnson owns land
Click here According to Court Case A, Anthony Johnson acquires land in Northampton County.This shows progress because you can't have diminishing progress without progress. -
Anthony Johnson owns slaves
Click here According to Court Case B, Anthony Johnson won his slave back from a white man in a trial.This shows the progress that free slaves were making before diminishing progress because it was uncommon for a free slave to win in court against a white man. -
Act-VIII, Punishment of Runaway Slaves
Click here According to Act-VIII, it was legal to wound or kill a slave who resisted arrest.This showed diminishing progress because it showed that they didn't care a lot about slaves. -
Act-VI. Hog Stealing
Click here According to Act-VI, any slave who steals a hog once will be lashed 39 times, and anyone who steals a hog twice shall have their ears nailed then cut off.The way that this shows diminishing progress is that white men are treating slaves less and less like humans and more and more like property. -
Act-XXII, Slaves are property
Click here According to act-XXII, Negro, Mulatto, and Indian slaves are now connsidered real estate.The passing of this law was the ultimate sign of diminishing progress because white men are just flat out saying that they don't think of slaves as humans anymore. -
Conclusion
Ultimately, Anthony Johnson was a successful free slave who lost almost everything he had to the diminishing progress of the passing of these laws.If we are not careful then we could see diminishing progress happening to a different group of people.
