Anthony and Mary Johnson: Free Black Landowners in Virginia

Anthony Johnson and his wife Mary, both formerly enslaved Africans who arrived in Virginia in the early 1620s, built a successful farm on Virginia's Eastern Shore and employed both white and Black servants. By the 1650s they held over 250 acres of land and Anthony successfully sued in colonial court to retain an indentured servant, demonstrating that early colonial legal structures allowed some Black people to exercise property rights and legal standing. Their story represents the narrow window of relative freedom that existed for some Black Virginians before racial slavery was fully codified.