Video by Myran Jones pictured above
Anthony Johnson (b. c. 1600 – d. 1670) was an Angolan who achieved freedom in the early 17th-century Colony of Virginia, where he became one of the first African property owners and slaveholders. Held as an indentured servant in 1621, he earned his freedom after several years, which was accompanied by a grant of land. He later became a successful tobacco farmer. Notably, he is recognized for attaining great wealth after having been an indentured servant and has been referred to as “’the black patriarch’ of the first community of Negro property owners in America”.
Johnson was captured in his native Angola by an enemy tribe and sold to Arab slave traders. He was eventually sold as an indentured servant to a merchant working for the Virginia Company
