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There was once a time where Africans were not slaves, but indentured servants. Religion played a huge role in keeping them out of bondage for life. However, as the years passed, greed began consuming the colonies and laws were passed that discriminated against these Africans. Once such person is Anthony Johnson, who became a part of the cultures of the countries he was sent to until he came to the colonies. He was a Christian and that helped him make progress in the colonies
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that were trying to diminish the progress of Anthony and everyone else who was an African in this time.
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Anthony Johnson makes progress as time goes by and he goes from being an indentured servant to being a slave and land owner.
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Anthony Johnson obtains his own land. This is important because it shows the first sign of progress in the colonies for Anthony Johnson after he is freed from his duties as an indentured servant. Through owning his own land, he can provide for his family financially, which helps show his social status to others in the colony. This also goes to show that Africans were not discriminated against yet and could obtain a position of higher social status if they were free.
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Anthony Johnson comes to court for a second time over his slave, John Casar. He wins the case and his slave is returned to him. This is important because Anthony Johnson has gone from being an indentured servant to a slave owner who owns land in the colonies, showing great progress both socially and financially.
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Time passed and the Englishmen became more dependent on labor to farm tobacco. Indentured servants were great until they were freed, and it was expensive to bring indentured servants over. They needed a cheap workforce and that's when they turned to slavery for the labor they needed. Slaves were cheap, you could have many, their children would serve you, and they would be in bondage for life, which was cheaper than bringing over indentured servants who would only be freed anyways.
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In the words of Margaret Washington, a professor of history at Cornell University, "So why both with indentured servants who, after 7, 18, or 21 years [would have to be freed], when you could have Africans serve their lifetime, and serve in perpetuity through their children?"
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Englishmen by having the slaves fear them even more. First, you could only be punished slightly, but now, death was the ultimate punishment. Fear, greed, dependency, control and power are intertwined in the Englishmen's plan to bring them higher than the already lower race.
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Soon, a law was passed in favor of the English slave owners. Slaves had been punished so much that they had died, which was a bad thing on the slave owner's part. This law said that you could kill a slave and not get in trouble for it. It really implies that you wouldn't hurt your property or kill it because in the end, it only ends up hurting you. This meant that if you misbehaved and were a slave, you could be killed and nobody would be blamed for it. This gave more control and power to the
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EDIT MORE NEXT TIME
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Fear is essential to have power and control over a group of certain people. Slave owners could easily punish a slave through many different techniques, but now an even more serious punishment came into play. Slaves were starved and malnurished, so they began stealing hogs for food. Their punishment wasn't just punishment, it was torture. It was cruel, and the details gruesome. The first part of it was public humiliation. Then, lots of pain followed. Their ears were nailed to a post for two hours
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![Casually Killing Slaves and Becoming Property [Part 1]](https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.timetoast.com/public/uploads/photo/3542233/image/84e975629d4b49c88d72e35ca618ca64?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAJB6ZCNNAN7BE7WDQ%2F20250916%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250916T001010Z&X-Amz-Expires=604800&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=31845b559eec689e5e15fc1b70acd489af69a1ecb5ada05ff98c1414fb452899)
