English transcript

Had a black guy named Anthony Johnson.

Anthony Johnson came to the United States in 1621.

Came in from England as a free black.

And head rights in those days says anybody come into the country

get 640 acres free right off the bat.

Then plus you can get another uh five or 600 acres for every slave that you own.

He immediately went and got... had 13 blacks.

So within a few years, about 15 years, he was one of the richest blacks in the colonies.

Now go up to 1638.

He had all kinds of land

and a whole bunch of slaves, getting close to about 70, 80 slaves now.

And a white guy went over to one of his plantations.

And one of the black slaves there named John Casor...

says uh, "Why am I a slave here with this guy?"

He says, "He owns me for life."

And the white fellow who was a plantation owner also said, "Look, he doesn't own you for life."

Indentured servantship normally runs five or seven years.

What do you mean he's got you for life?

This black guy said, "I've been working for this

black slave plantation owner for almost 20-something years."

The guy said, "Well just run off and leave. Forget about him.

You don't have to keep working for him."

So the black slave, John Casor, ran off.

Anthony Johnson then went to court.

And he sued the white plantation owner who had encouraged the black to run off.

And the court accepted Anthony Johnson's claim against this black slave.

Saying that he owned that slave for life.

Now, what happened there never had ever happened on the history of the earth.

With black folk and in this country.

Where all of a sudden a person laid claims against an individual

for the rest of his entire naked life.

And it was a black man.

And once... once that court decision was made, whites picked it up.

That became the enslavement codes, both explicitly and implicitly.

And all the states began to enact it then, based on... on Anthony Johnson's ruling in court

that he owns a... a black... another black person for life.