A Summary Of Anthony Johnson As A Slavery?

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On March 8, 1655, Anthony Johnson made history by becoming the first legal slave owner in America( Woodbridge 1999). How could Johnson, a former indentured servant and fellow african, force someone into lifelong servitude? This man was John Casor (Nicholson, 2015). In order to justify forcing this man into slavery, Johnson used relativism.

Brought to America in the early 1600s, Anthony Johnson arrived as an indentured servant to work under a master on a Virginia plantation. Although it is unclear when he gained his freedom, he used that freedom to acquire hundreds of acres for himself and his family. In order to maintain a prosperous tobacco field, he used indentured servants. One of these servants, John Casor, eventually would become the first recorded example …show more content…

In 1654, Casor filed a complaint to the Northampton County Court. He claimed that his master, Anthony Johnson, unlawfully extended the terms of his service as an indentured servant to the point of becoming a lifelong slave. Finally, after a year of wrestling with the courts, Casor was given his ruling. His sentence was the very thing he was trying to fight. He would be returned to his master and be confined to servitude. In the years to come, slavery among black plantation owners grew all over America. So what reasoning did those free blacks have for wanting to enslave those whose position they were in at one time?

Moral-cultural relativism can explain this pattern of behavior. In moral-cultural relativism, morals are created by and apply only to people with a particular culture or community. Considering the time, free blacks still had many of the problems that black

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