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John Casor (surname also recorded as Cazara and Corsala),〔 a servant in Northampton County in the Virginia Colony, in 1655 became the first person of African descent in Britain's Thirteen Colonies to be declared as a slave for life as the result of a civil suit.〔Edgar Toppin (1973). ''The Black American in United States History'', Allyn & Bacon. ISBN 9781475961720, p. 46〕〔 In an earlier case, John Punch was the first man documented as a slave in the Virginia Colony, sentenced to life in servitude for attempting to escape his indenture.〔(John Henderson Russell. ''The Free Negro In Virginia, 1619-1865'' ), Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1913, pp. 29-30, scanned text online〕 In one of the earliest freedom suits, Casor argued that he was an indentured servant who had been forced by Anthony Johnson, a free black, to serve past his term; he was freed and went to work for Robert Parker as an indentured servant. Johnson sued Parker for Casor's services. In ordering Casor returned to his master, Johnson, for life, the court both declared Casor a slave and sustained the right of free blacks to own slaves. Slavery law hardened during Casor's lifetime.〔Walsh, Michael (March 8, 2008) ''White Cargo'' NYU Press ISBN 0814742963〕 In 1662, the Virginia colony passed a law incorporating the principle of ''partus sequitur ventrem'', ruling that children of enslaved mothers would be born into slavery, regardless of their father's race or status.〔(Taunya Lovell Banks, "Dangerous Woman: Elizabeth Key's Freedom Suit - Subjecthood and Racialized Identity in Seventeenth Century Colonial Virginia" ), 41 ''Akron Law Review'' 799 (2008), Digital Commons Law, University of Maryland Law School, accessed 21 Apr 2009〕 This was in contradiction to English common law for English subjects, which based a child's status on that of the father. In 1699 Virginia passed a law deporting all free blacks. But many new families of free people of color continued to be formed during the colonial years by the close relationships among the working class. ==Background== At this time, there were only about 300 persons of African origin living in the Virginia Colony, about 1% of an estimated population of 30,000. The first group of 20 or so Africans were brought to Jamestown in 1619 as indentured servants. After working out their contracts for passage money to Virginia and completing their indenture, each was granted of land (headrights). This enabled them to raise their own tobacco or other crops. Although most historians believe slavery, as an institution, developed much later, they differ on the exact status of their servitude before slavery was established, as well as differing over the date when this took place. The colonial charter entitled English subjects and their children the rights of the common law, but people of other nations were considered foreigners or aliens outside the common law. At the time, the colony had no provision for naturalizing foreigners.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Casor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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