Talk:Northampton County, Virginia

message: This article's section of "Slavery" is grossly mischaracterized. This particular statement "In 1653, Johnson brought suit in Northampton County Court to argue that one of his servants, John Casor, was indentured to him for life. The court ruled in Johnson's favor, making Northampton County the first place in America where slavery was legally recognized," is wrong for multiple reasons.  First we'll start with a simple timeline:
-1500s Spanish colonies had legal slavery
-1640  John Punch is the first indentured servant legally sentenced to slavery
-1641 Massachusetts legalizes slavery
-1650 Connecticut legalizes slavery
-1654 John Casor is ordered by the court to return to the service of Johnson, thus making him a slave for life
As you can see, there were many events preceding Casor that legally recognized slavery in America. The Casor suit wasn't even the first case in Virginia to recognize slavery since John Punch was sentenced to lifetime slavery as punishment for running away in 1640. William Wood makes reference to the case of John Punch but gets the date wrong and misrepresents what the ruling actually declared, as verified by 2 of his own sources. Wood says that the court "...declared that no added time would be imposed on the Negro since he was already held to lifetime servitude." This is not true, the court declared that John Punch would get 30 lashes and that he "serve his said master or his assigns for the time of his natural Life here or elsewhere." Wood also misrepresents 2 of his sources, Klein and the Virginia Writers' Project that claimed the court had determined to sentence Punch to lifetime servitude. Here are extracts from those sources:
"The third, 'being a negro named John Punch shall serve his master of his assigns for th time of his natural Life here of elsewhere.' This case, antedating that of John Casor by four years, made a Negro a slave for life as penalty for the crime of running away." Here they clearly claim how Punch was made a slave by the court which contradicts Wood's assertion that Punch was already a lifetime servant and thus wasn't punished further by the court.
"...there already appeared as early as 1640 county court cases recognizing the institution{slavery} as it was being created in practice by the planters. In that year John Punch, a Negro, was made to serve for life as a punishment for running away, whereas the two whites with him had but four additional years added to their time." Here Klein also describes how Punch, by judicial determination, was made a lifetime servant for attempting to run away. 
So this is important to understand so you can realize why Wood's portrayal of the matter is inaccurate. Wood says in summation "This is the first case on record of a judicial determination of Negro servitude for life, a precedent set by a Negro as a plaintiff." Not only does the official court record contradict this statement but so do the sources Wood used himself.
So I will be making changes to this section to accurately reflect the significance of the Johnson v. Parker trial as described by Klein and Foner.-Scoobydunk (talk) 22:48, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Slavery