Johnson, Sr., 50 acres. Richard Johnson, probably the first Negro
to enter Virginia as a free man, arrived the same year. Anthony
Johnson and his wife are named among the twenty-three Negro
"servants" listed in the census of 1624-5 as residents of the colony.
REFERENCE: Russell, The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619-1865. p. 24.

1653. First record of Negro slave owner in the United States. In that year John Casor, a Negro of Northampton County, brought suit against Anthony Johnson to obtain his freedom. He claimed, according to the records: "Yt hee came into Virginia for seaven or eight years of Indenture, yt Hee had demanded his freedom of Anth. Johnson, his Mayster; & further sd yt hee had kept him a servant seaven years longer than hee should or ought."

Anthony Johnson referred to is evidently the same Anthony Johnson who, with his wife, Mary, were among the twenty-three African residents at the colony in 1624-5 when they are listed as servants. It is evident, if the camplaint of John Casor is true, namely, that Johnson had held him as a servant seaven years beyond the period for which he was indentured, that Anthony Johnson must have been a free man as early as 1635. It is of record that Johnson was successful in the suit which Casor brought against him and retained the services of Casor apparently for life.

1655. First record of voluntary emancipation in Virginia.

Richard Vaughan, of Northampton County, in emancipating one of his Negroes said in the following declaration: "These testify that Mr. Richard Vaughan doe hereby acquitt and discharge one negro Boye known by the name of James from all Claymes or Demands of service for myselfe, heyers, Exors., adma. provided the negro doe not covenant with any person but shall keepe himselfe free."

1661, March 1. First formal recognition of slavery in Virginia. Assembly declares that "Negroes are incapable of making satisfaction (for the time lost in running away), by addition of time."

1662. Slavery in Virginia made hereditary by the decree that the issue of slave mothers should follow their condition.

1665.

Slavery was declared hereditary in the other colonies as follows: Maryland, 1663; Massachusetts, 1698; Connecticut and New Jersey, 1704; Pennsylvania and New York, 1706; South Carolina, 1712; Rhode Island, 1728; and North Carolina, 1741.

Slavery in South Carolina; abolished 1865.

1667. Virginia Assembly declares that "Baptisme doth not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom." From this time on, original heathenism began to be a nominal test for slavery. It also began to be declared that it was not in

1669.

consistent for Christians to hold Christians as slaves if these slaves
had formerly been heathens.

In 1670 Virginia passed a law declaring "all servants not being
Christians imported into this colony by ships' to be slaves for life.
Twelve years later an act was passed repealing the law of 1670,
and making slaves of all persons of non-Christian nationality there-
after coming into the colonies whether they came by land or sea,
and whether or not they had been converted to Christianity after
captivity.

In 1671, Maryland Assembly declares that conversion or the holy sacrament of baptism does not alter the status of slaves or their issue.

1682, Virginia denies the benefits of Christianity as a mode of securing freedom to all Negroes, mulattoes, hostile Moors, and Turks and to such Indians as were sold by other Indians as slaves. Slavery in North Carolina; abolished 1865.

1670. Law passed in Virginia declared "noe Negro or Indian, though baptized and enjoined for freedom, shall be capable of any purchase of Christians, but yet not debarred from buying any of their owne nation."

Free Negroes often purchased their slave wives and children and held them as bond slaves. This was particularly true after the passing of the law of 1806 that made illegal the continual residence of free Negroes manumitted from May 1 of that year. 1679. New Hampshire founded, slavery probably established; abolished 1783.

1681. Maryland Assembly passes an act declaring children born of white servant women and Negroes are free.

1681. Pennsylvania ceded to William Penn; slavery probably already established. Gradual abolition begins 1780.

1692. Maryland Assembly decrees that the issue of the union between any white woman or any slave or free Negro became servants for a long term.

1695. Maryland places a tax on imported slaves.

1699. Virginia imposes tax to check importation of slaves.

1705, October 4. General Assembly of Virginia presents an act declaring the Negroes, mulattoes, and Indian slaves to be real

estate.

1710, October 9. First use in Virginia of legislative power to emancipate a slave. Will, a slave of Robert Ruffin, of Surry County, Virginia, given his manumission papers by the General Assembly for revealing a slave conspiracy.

1712. Legislature of Pennsylvania passes an act restricting the increase of slaves.

1715. North Carolina passes law declaring slaves shall not be allowed to buy and sell or even to borrow.

1717.

Slavery introduced into Louisiana.

1729. Governor Gooch of Virginia and the State Assembly grant freedom to a slave for the discovery of an herb medicine by which wonderful cures were effected. In the same year, crownattorney and solicitor-general of England declare that baptism in no way changed the slave's status.

1741. North Carolina enacts a law declaring that if any Negro, mulattto, or Indian, bond or free, be found to have testified falsely, he shall have his ears nailed to the pillory, then cut off, after which he was to receive thirty-nine lashes on his bare back. 1750. Slavery in Georgia; abolished 1865.

1752. Maryland Assembly passes act forbidding manumission by will or otherwise during the last illness of the master. 1760.

South Carolina attempts to restrict slave importation.

1769. Virginia Legislature declared that the discriminatory tax levied upon free Negroes and mulattoes since 1668 was "derogatory to the rights of free born subjects," and therefore should be repealed.

1772. Somerset, James, brought by his master from Boston to England, was set free by Lord Mansfield on a writ of habeas

corpus.

The Somerset case brought out the distinction between the English and the Colonial law. Lord Mansfield allowed writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reason, moral or political. It is so odious that nothing can be offered to support it but positive law.

REFERENCE: Hurd, Freedom and Bondage I, 189-191.

1773. Eight petitions presented to the New Jersey Assembly from the inhabitants of six different counties, asking that the importation of slaves be prohibited and the opportunity of manumission be increased.

1774, October. Connecticut prohibits the importation of slaves. 1774, October 20. First Continental Congress declared in the Articles of Association that the United Colonies would "nei

ther import nor purchase any slaves," and would "wholly discontinue the slave trade."

1776, April 16. The Continental Congress unanimously resolved that "no slave be imported into any of the thirteen colonies." 1777, October 13. Continental Congress decides that slaves should be wholly exempt from taxation.

1778. Virginia passes an act prohibiting the slave trade. 1780. Pennsylvania prohibits further introduction of slaves. 1780. The meeting of the annual Methodist conference at Baltimore put this question and answered it in the affirmative: "Does this conference acknowledge that slavery is contrary to the laws of God, man and nature and hurtful to society; contrary to the dictates of conscience, pure religion, and doing that which we would not that others should do to us and ours; do we pass our disapprobation on all our friends who keep slaves, and advise their freedom?" 1782, May. A law bearing the title "An act to authorize the manumission of slaves" passed by the Virginia legislature.

The free Negro population of Virginia at that time was probably less than 3,000. It was more than doubled in the space of two years. In 1790 the number of free colored persons was 12,866, in 1800 it had reached 20,000, and according to the census of 1810 it was over 30,000.

1783. Every Negro in Virginia who fought or served as a free man in the Revolutionary War was given the legislative pledge of protection by the Virginia Assembly and every slave who had rendered honorable service to the American cause was freed by special act at the expense of the State.

1783. Maryland prohibits the introduction of slaves for sale.

1783, April 1. Continental Congress decides that for purposes of taxation five slaves should be counted as three freemen.

1784. Continental Congress votes not to prohibit slavery in the present States of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.

1784. Connecticut and Rhode Island prohibit the importation of

slaves.

1786. North Carolina declares slave trade "of evil consequences and highly impolitic."

1786. New Jersey passes law against slave importation. 1787, July 13. Ordinance for the Government of the territory

northwest of the Ohio passes. One section declares "There

shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes whereof the parties shall be duly convicted."

SLAVERY IN THE STATES

1787, September 17. Constitution of the United States adopted. Article 1, Section 2 contains the following passage, the first of a series of compromises of the Federal Government with slavery: Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to serve for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, threefifths of all other persons.

Article 1, Section 9 contains the following provision relative to the slave trade:

The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight; but a tax of duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.

1788, October. Connecticut enacts law forbidding any inhabitant of State to receive on his vessel "any inhabitants of Africa as slaves."

1790, April 2. Congress accepts from the State of North Carolina the territory now included in the State of Tennessee, with the proviso, "that no regulations made or to be made by Congress shall tend to emancipate slaves."

1790, July 16. Congress passes an act accepting cessions from

Maryland and Virginia for the District of Columbia upon condition that the laws of the two States should remain in force in their respective portions of the District, "until the time fixed for the removal of the Government thereto, and until Congress shall otherwise by law provide."

1793, February 12. Congress passes first fugitive slave law, giving

the owner or his agent the right to bring the alleged fugitive "before any magistrate of a county, city or town corporate," in order to obtain a decision ordering the return of the fugitive to the State or territory from which he had escaped.

1794. Congress passes an act to prevent the fitting out in ports