John Casor

John Casor (surname also recorded as Cazara and Corsala), This contradicted English common law for English subjects, which based a child's status on that of the father. In 1699, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a law deporting all free Black people. But many new families of free Black people continued to be formed during the colonial years by the close relationships among the working class.

Background At this time, there were only about 300 people of African origin living in the Virginia Colony, about 1% of an estimated population of 30,000. The first group of 20 or so Africans were brought to Jamestown in 1619 as freed captives.

Although most historians believe slavery, as an institution, developed much later, they differ on the exact status of the servitude of Africans before slavery was established legally, as well as differing over the date when this took place. The colonial charter entitled English subjects and their children the rights of the common law. Still, people of other nations were considered foreigners or aliens outside the common law. At the time, the colony had no provision for naturalizing foreigners. During the late 1640s, Johnson moved with his family to Northampton County on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. He acquired property on Pungoteague Creek and began raising livestock. One commentator said that Johnson may have feared losing his headrights land if the case went to court.

In 1654, Johnson sued Robert Parker in Northampton County court for detaining his "Negro servant, John Casor," saying, "Hee never did see any [indenture] but that hee had ye Negro for his life". In the case of Johnson v. Parker, the court of Northampton County upheld Johnson's right to enslave Casor, saying in its ruling of March 8, 1655:

This daye Anthony Johnson negro made his complaint to the court against mr. Robert Parker and declared that hee deteyneth his servant John Casor negro under the pretence that said negro was a free man. The court seriously consideringe and maturely weighing the premisses, doe fynde that the saide Mr. Robert Parker most unjustly keepeth the said Negro from Anthony Johnson his master ... It is therefore the Judgement of the Court and ordered That the said John Casor Negro forthwith returne unto the service of the said master Anthony Johnson, And that Mr. Robert Parker make payment of all charges in the suit.

Slavery In sustaining the claim of Johnson to the perpetual service of Casor, the court also gave judicial sanction to the right of free Black people to enslave another Black person. In a 1916 article, John H. Russell wrote, "Indeed no earlier record, to our knowledge, has been found of judicial support given to slavery in Virginia except as a punishment for a crime." Russell makes that distinction because in 1640, John Punch "was reduced from his former condition of servitude for a limited time to a condition of slavery for life." In 1670, the colonial assembly passed a law prohibiting free and baptized Black and Indigenous people from purchasing White, Christian persons, but allowing them to buy people "of their owne nation." In this meaning, "purchase" is also related to buying the contract services of indentured servants of various "nations." By an act of 1699, the colony ordered all free Black people deported, virtually defining slaves as all people of African descent who remained in the colony.