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Anthony Johnson was an Angolan African held as an indentured servant by a merchant in the Colony of Virginia in 1620, but later freed to become a successful tobacco farmer and owner. Notably, he was the first to hold a black African servant as a slave in the mainland American colonies.

Prior to 1654, all Africans in the thirteen Colonies were held in indentured servitude and were released after a contracted period[3] with many of the slaves receiving land and equipment after their contracts for work expired. Bennet allowed Johnson to own his own plot of land to be used for farming.[4]

By July 1651 Johnson had five indentured servants of his own and he claimed an additional 250 acres (100 ha) of land based on the headright system.[4] He is recognized in Virginia court documents when he pled for tax relief after a fire destroyed much of his plantation,[6] and in a case in which he contested the freedom suit of a servant, John Casor. Johnson won the suit and retained Casor as his servant for life, the first true slave in Virginia.[7]

Slavery was officially established in Virginia in 1654, when Johnson convinced a court that his servant (also a black man), John Casor, was his for life. Johnson himself had been brought to Virginia some years earlier as an indentured servant but he had saved enough money to buy out the remainder of his contract and that of his wife. The court ruling in Johnson’s favor resulted in Casor becoming the first state-recognized slave in the Colony of Virginia.

Although it was Johnson's court case against John Casor that established the legal status of slavery in Virginia, it is difficult to identify him as the 'first' slaveholder in the state as indentured servants were in effect slaves for the term of their contract. Johnson was the first to hold servants who were legally slaves for life.




And in 1860, a black man named William Ellison was South Carolina's largest slave owner and is possibly the largest slave owner in all of American history. He and his sons notably spent nearly all of their fortune supporting the war for southern independence because they were afraid the yankees would outlaw slavery. They even converted their fields from growing cotton to growing mixed crops to feed the troops. He was financially ruined after the war when his slaves were freed and his plantation burned to the ground by Union troops.

His grandson fought for the Confederacy; though he was a camp follower and not officially allowed to take up arms, he did participate in combat in several battles and was wounded once, surviving the war.

Hows THAT for achieving!