Whereas complaint was this daye made to ye court by ye humble peticion of Anth.  Johnson Negro ag[ains]t Mr. Robert Parker that hee detayneth one John Casor a Negro the plaintiffs Serv[an]t under pretense yt the sd Jno.  Casor is a freeman the court seriously considering & maturely weighing ye premises doe fynd that ye sd Mr. Robert Parker most unrightly keepeth ye sd Negro John Casor from his r[igh]t mayster Anth.  Johnson as it appeareth by ye Deposition of Capt.  Samll Gold smith & many probable circumstances. be it therefore ye Judgement of ye court & ordered that ye sd Jno.  Casor negro, shall forthwith bee turned into ye service of his sd master Anthony Johnson and that the sd Mr. Robert Parker make payment of all charges in the suite and execution.[5]

In thus sustaining the claim of Anth.  Johnson to the perpetual service of John Casor the court gave judicial sanction to the right of Negroes to own slaves of their own race.  Indeed no earlier record, to our knowledge, has been found of judicial support given to slavery in Virginia except as a punishment for crime.  Additional gleanings from the records show that this black slavemaster was a respected citizen of wealth and one of the very earliest Negro arrivals upon this continent, if, indeed, he was not one of the first twenty brought in on the Dutch man-of-war in 1619.  Every doubt of the correctness of this assertion should be banished by a perusal of the somewhat detailed evidence upon which the conclusion is based.

The discovery of the fact that Anthony Johnson was a slaveowner led to a further examination of court records and land patents for additional information concerning him.  In the court records of Northampton County in 1653 it was found recorded that “Anth.  Johnson negro hath this daye made his compl[ain]t to ye court that John Johnson, Senr. most unrightly detayneth a pattent of his for 450 acres of land (which pattent sd.  Jno.  Johnson negro claymeth & boldly affirmeth to bee his land."[6]

A search in the early land patents of the State revealed a grant by the authorities of the State of two hundred and fifty acres of land in Northampton County to Anthony Johnson a Negro.  The grant was made as “head rights” upon the importation by the Negro of five persons into the colony.[7] Still pursuing the record of this black freeman, who was able to maintain a slave, the following was discovered in the records of the county court of Northampton: 

Upon ye humble pet[ition] of Anth.  Johnson negro & Mary his wife & their Information to ye Court that they have been Inhabitants in Virginia above thirty years, consideration being taken of their hard labor and honored service performed by the petitioners in this Country for ye obtayneing of their Livelyhood and ye great Llosse they have sustained by an unfortunate fire with their present charge to provide for.  Be it therefore fitt and ordered that from the day of the debate hearof