Talk:Anthony Johnson (colonist)

message: Whoever said that this article is an AFD please explain your reason why. - Sfrostee
:"long list of times they have been blocked"? ONCE is alot of times for a new editor?OK I guess??--68.9.116.87 04:59, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: 68.9.116.87 has never been blocked for vandalism. (→Netscott) 06:14, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: JAMESTOWN  The first permanent English settlement within the limits of the United States, founded in May, 1607, by a small company under Captain Newport, in Virginia, on the banks of the James River, about 32 miles from its mouth.  Here in 1619 the first legislative assembly in America was held,  and here in the same year slavery was first introduced into the original thirteen Colonies.
It's none of my business, of course, but this page titled Anthony Johnson (American Colonial) appears to be an attempt to claim that the first slaveholder in the United States was a Negro, not a white man who owned negroes.  I have always heard that slavery was enacted by the legislature of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619.  This page is at variance with all of the history books and with New International Encyclopedia, too.  Velocicaptor 01:22, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: These words are quoted from [[New International Encyclopedia]]

message: As an institution, slavery did not exist in Virginia in 1619. Slavery as we know it today, evolved gradually, beginning with customs rather than laws, and the institution of slavery evolved legally over a period of time, from indentured servitude to life long servitude. NPS website says that John Punch, a runaway indentured Servant, was the first documented slave for life in 1640. Virginia, Guide to The Old Dominion of the WPA Writers' Program stated that the court case of Anthony Johnson in Northampton County was the first. The NPS site goes on to say that, by 1662, slavery was recognized in the statutory law of the colony. Sources: 
Vaoverland 05:39, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: "Anthony Johnson was the most wealthy freed slave ever up until the end of the Civil War 200 years later." Should this be freed slave or free Black man? Reb 12:47, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

text: Hahaha, oh wow. 93.138.158.151 (talk) 17:15, 19 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: No slavery as of 1619, it was law by 1662

message: His wife's name is first given as Juana, then as Mary. Did she change her name? Is this the same person? Hypocryptickal (talk) 12:45, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Possibly.  They were from Angola which at that time Had been incontact with Portugal.  The Angolans hand converted to Catholocism and taken portugese names. (In particular in the cities and settlements which tells us something about who these people were.)--71.239.120.235 (talk) 03:55, 7 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Juana or Mary?

message: Mischievous and misleading edits e.g.:
Ironically, Anthony Johnson is the first man known to have owned a slave despite that he was himself a black man.
Poor grammar, spelling and poor context for some statements. I've done what I can. Centrepull (talk) 22:13, 7 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Multiple Issues - fixed 

message: I will change it to year of birth unknown. 1620 is the year of his first appearance, not his birth. 99.6.41.121 (talk) 06:19, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Birth Year

message: An 'Angolan African?' That's like saying, 'David Cameron, an English European.'
I'm removing the redundancy.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.119.224.131 (talk) 00:24, 6 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Angolan African? 

message: Another Wikipedia article on John Punch (slave) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Punch_(slave)) suggests that, in judgement against him for an attempt to escape while an indentured servant, John Punch was actually the first "indentured servant for life" in Virginia, in 1640, well predating the case in this article.  Jefferson made comments on the deteriorating condition of records from the 1600's ... possibly much has been lost.  I have been unable to locate any interim laws establishing the legitimacy of slavery, until a law in 1662 decided "Negro women’s children to serve according to the condition of the mother."
WHEREAS some doubts have arrisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a negro woman should be slave or ffree, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly, that all children borne in this country shalbe held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother." (http://www.studythepast.com/slaveryvirginiatimeline.pdf) Tomligon (talk) 01:42, 23 February 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Despite being indentured for life Punch was still considered to be an endentured servant.  Wayne (talk) 03:38, 23 February 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: The court accepted testimony that Casor had never had a contract of indenture. This means Casor was never an indentured servant but a slave. Wayne (talk) 06:53, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

text: PBS is a single source which you appear to have used WP:OR to interpret. The majority of historians support Johnson being the first slave owner. As I said below, I am rewriting the article so please don't make any more changes as it is disruptive. If you have a problem use the Talk page and we can discuss it. Make a new section at the bottom instead of adding to an old discussion in the middle. Wayne (talk) 16:35, 4 September 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  What about John Punch? 

message: Massachusetts slave laws (1641) predate Anthony Johnson's court case.  There were slaves in the continental US going as far back as the 1620's in Massachusset's.  Reference to these are easily found, even in Wikipedia's page on the Mass slave laws.  This interpretation of Johnson as first slave owner has some history, but has been debunked in the literature and only remains due to recent promotion by Glenn Beck.  I think Wiki would prefer to be consistent with recorded history and it's own articles and references elsewhere here.  So I've renamed that section to something more neutral and took out outrageous claims like "first slave".  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ex0du5 5utu7e (talk • contribs) 17:31, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: It also appears the original wording of that paragraph only stated that he was the first legally recognized in Virginia, which is true.  That claim had the same reference as the removed "first slave" generalisation, which was added later.  The reference used makes no such general claim.--Ex0du5 5utu7e (talk) 18:18, 21 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removed incorrect wording about slaves 

message: Second paragraph currently reads as follows:
"Slavery has been rife throughout all of ancient history. Most, if not all, ancient civilizations practiced this institution and it is described (and defended) in early writings of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. It was also practiced by early societies in central America and Africa. (See Bernard Lewis’s work Race and Slavery in the Middle East1 for a detailed chapter of the origins and practices of slavery.)The Qur’an prescribes a humanitarian approach to slavery — free men could not be enslaved, and those faithful to foreign religions could live as protected persons, dhimmis, under Muslim rule (as long as they maintained payment of taxes called Kharaj and Jizya). However, the spread of the Islamic Empire resulted in a much harsher interpretation of the law. For example, if a dhimmis was unable to pay the taxes they could be enslaved, and people from outside the borders of the Islamic Empire were considered an acceptable source of slaves."
I do not understand what this is doing here.  A general description of the history of slavery does not belong in an article about a specific person.  Not one word about the subject of the article.  I'll delete it if nobody objects.221bbaker (talk) 23:39, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Article Introduction 2nd Paragrah 

message: Why is it only “true” slavery, if it‘s a black and African person? They don’t have a monopoly on victimhood. — 78.34.202.5 (talk) 09:39, 30 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Racism in the article 

message: I'm currently re-writing the article so it will look a little disjointed until I finish. Please avoid corrections for now and bear with me for a few days. Wayne (talk) 17:35, 3 September 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Re-write 

message: This article has been protected from editing for three days to try to generate talk page discussion of the disputed content. Please follow the WP:BRD guideline. You may also wish to consider dispute resolution (WP:DR). Mark Arsten (talk) 01:54, 8 September 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Article protected 

message: I noticed that an editor requested a citation for a statement in this article that declared that indentured servants who completed their contracts of indenture were better off than immigrants that arrived freely. I started to do some research and I found an article published by The Journal of American History that actually seems to claim the opposite. It is an article written by Aaron S. Fogleman titled From Slaves, Convicts, and Servants to Free Passengers: The Transformation of Immigration in the Era of the American Revolution and he says on page 47 "Although indentured servitude offered opportunity to some struggling European migrants, opportunities were even greater for those who traveled as free passengers."  He goes on to explain that the majority of those arriving freely were of higher social status than indentured servants and were looking to improve their economic situation. I'll give some time for someone to produce a reliable scholarly source expressing the opposite before making changes to the article.
Also, you can find the article I linked on Academicroom.com if you don't have a JSTOR account, but wikipedia blocked the link which is why I put down the JSTOR one.-Scoobydunk (talk) 06:51, 12 November 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Academicroom.com is on the blacklist of spam websites, apparently because the link was being used to replace better references on WP by editors and socks connected to the website.Very few people of "higher social status" emigrated, the majority were working class and the sources confirm that indentured servants who had completed their contracts were significantly better off than this class of immigrant. Wayne (talk) 06:22, 13 November 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I know why Academicroom is blocked, I was merely informing people they could read the article there if they wanted to. The concerned editor noted that the information in the article, which you've just reasserted, is not cited. So if you want to defend that portion of the article and contest the information and source I've provided, then you need to supply your own scholarly source that contradicts mine. Also, I wasn't talking about all immigrants, I was specifically talking about free immigrants and my source says they were generally of higher social status compared to indentured servants and had greater opportunity than indentured servants who completed their contracts. It specifically says, "Free immigrants came from socially diverse backgrounds, but in general they were of a higher social status than indentured servants." Like I said, I'll wait a few more days before making changes to provide ample time for people to provide sources for the information in question. Even if the sources are found, I'm not convinced this detailed information about indentured servants even belongs in this article as it does nothing to expound upon Anthony Johnson's early life. But, we'll see what information arises and make a decision from there about how or if this information should be tied into the articleScoobydunk (talk) 07:20, 13 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Indentured servants better off than free immigrants 

message: Those watching this page should be aware of the discussion(s) underway at WP:NPOVN related to this article. Toddst1 (talk) 23:09, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Discussion notice 

message: Please add an appropriate page-protection padlock template to the top of this page.  Thanks.  davidwr/(talk)/(contribs) 18:09, 23 January 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Done --Redrose64 (talk) 18:36, 23 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Add protection padlock template 

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\{\{other people|Anthony Johnson\}\}\
\{\{Infobox person\
| name        = Anthony Johnson\
| image       = Anthony Johnson (slave).jpg\
| alt         = \
| caption     = Anthony Johnson c. 1650.\
| birth_name  = \
| birth_date  = c. 1600\
| birth_place = Angola\
| death_date  = 1670\
| death_place = Colony of Virginia\
| nationality = \
| other_names = Antonio\
| occupation  = Farmer\
| known_for   = The most prominent former black indentured servant to obtain freedom, wealth, and slaves of his own.\
\}\}\
\
Anthony Johnson (c1600 — 1670) was an Angolan who achieved freedom and became a property owner and slaveholder in the Colony of Virginia in the early 17th century. Held as an indentured servant in 1621, he earned his freedom after several years, which was accompanied by a grant of land. He later became a successful tobacco farmer. Notably, he is recognized for attaining great wealth after having been an indentured servant and for being the first legally recognized slaveowner in the English colonies.\
\
==Biography==\
\
===Early life===\
Johnson was captured in his native Angola by an enemy tribe and sold to Arab slave traders. He was eventually sold as a slave or indentured servant to a merchant working for the Virginia Company.Horton 2002, p. 29.\
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The Virginia Muster (census) of 1624 lists his name as "Antonio not given," with "a Negro" written in the notes column, and records that he had arrived in Virginia in 1621 aboard the James.Breen1980, p. 8. There is some dispute among historians as to whether this was the Antonio who became Anthony Johnson, as the census lists several "Antonios," with this one being considered the most likely.\{\{cite book | last = Walsh | first = Lorena | year = 2010 | title = Motives of Honor, Pleasure, and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763 | publisher = UNC Press | location = Pg 115 | isbn = 9780807832349 \}\}  Johnson was sold to a white planter named Bennet as an indentured servant to work on his Virginia tobacco farm. Servants typically worked four to seven years to pay off their passage, room, board, lodging and freedom dues. In the early colonial years, most Africans in the Thirteen Colonies were held under contracts of indentured servitude. With the exception of those indentured for life, they were released after a contracted periodHorton 2002, p. 26. with many of the indentured receiving land and equipment after their contracts expired or were bought out. Johnson took ownership of a large plot of farmland after he paid off his indentured contract. \
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Johnson almost lost his life in the Indian massacre of 1622 when his master's plantation was attacked. The Powhatan, who were the Native Americans dominant in the Tidewater of Virginia, were upset at the encroachment of the colonists into their land. They attacked the settlement on Good Friday and killed 52 of the 57 men where Johnson worked. \
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The following year (1623) "Mary, a Negro" arrived from England aboard the ship Margaret and was brought to work on the plantation, where she was the only woman. Johnson and Mary married and lived together for over forty years.Breen (1980), p. 10.\
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===Freedom===\
Sometime after 1635, Antonio and Mary gained their freedom from indenture. Antonio changed his name to Anthony Johnson. Johnson first enters the legal record as a free man when he purchased a calf in 1647. On 24 July 1651 he acquired \{\{convert|250|acre|ha\}\} of land under the headright system by buying five indentured servants, one of whom was his son Richard Johnson. The land was located on the Great Naswattock Creek which flowed into the Pungoteague River in Northampton County, Virginia.:\{\{cite book | last = Heinegg | first = Paul | year = 2005 | title = Free African Americans of North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina from the Colonial Period to about 1820, Volume 2 | publisher = Genealogical Publishing | location = Pg 705 | isbn = 9780806352824 \}\}\
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In 1652 "an unfortunate fire" caused "great losses" for the family, and Johnson applied to the courts for tax relief. The court not only reduced the family's taxes but on 28 February 1652, exempted his wife Mary and their two daughters from paying taxes at all "during their natural lives." At that time taxes were levied on people not property, and under the 1645 Virginia taxation act, "all negro men and women and all other men from the age of 16 to 60 shall be judged tithable."\{\{cite book | last = Breen | first = T. H. | year = 2004 | title = "Myne Owne Ground"\'a0: Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Pg 12 | isbn =  9780199729050 \}\} It is unclear from the records why the Johnson women were exempted, but the change gave them the same social standing as white women, who were not taxed. During the case, the justices noted that Anthony and Mary "have lived Inhabitants in Virginia (above thirty years)" and had been respected for their "hard labor and known service".\
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==Casor suit==\
When Johnson was released from servitude, he was legally recognized as a "free Negro" and ran a successful farm. In 1651 he owned 250 acres, and the services of four white and one black indentured servant. In 1653, John Casor, a black indentured servant Johnson had apparently bought in the early 1640s, approached Captain Goldsmith, claiming his indenture had expired seven years earlier and that he was being held illegally. A neighbor, Robert Parker, intervened, and Johnson was persuaded to set Casor free. \
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Parker offered Casor work, and he signed a term of indenture to the planter. Johnson sued Parker in the Northampton Court in 1654 for the return of Casor. The court initially found in favor of Parker, but Johnson appealed. In 1655, the court reversed its ruling.\{\{cite book | last = Walker | first = Juliet | year = 2009 | title = The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship, Volume 1 | publisher = University of North Carolina Press | location = Pg 49 | isbn = 9780807832417 \}\} Finding that Anthony Johnson still "owned" John Casor, the court ordered that he be returned with the court dues paid by Robert Parker.\{\{Cite book|author=Frank W. Sweet|title=Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise and Triumph of the One-Drop Rule|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=kezflCVnongC&pg=PA117|accessdate=23 February 2013|date=July 2005|publisher=Backintyme|isbn=978-0-939479-23-8|page=117\}\} This was the first instance of a judicial determination in the thirteen colonies holding that a person who had committed no crime could be held in servitude for life.\{\{cite book | last = Federal Writers' Project | first =  | year = 1954 | title = Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion | publisher = US History Publishers | location = Pg 76 | isbn = 9781603540452 \}\}\{\{cite book | last = Danver | first = Steven | year = 2010 | title = Popular Controversies in World History | publisher = ABC-CLIO | location = Pg 322 | isbn = 9781598840780 \}\}\{\{cite book | last = Kozlowski | first = Darrell | year = 2010 | title = Colonialism: Key Concepts in American History | publisher = Infobase Publishing | location = Pg 78 | isbn = 9781604132175 \}\}\{\{cite book | last = Conway | first = John | year = 2008 | title = A Look at the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments: Slavery Abolished, Equal Protection Established | publisher = Enslow Publishers | location = Pg 5 | isbn = 9781598450705 \}\}\{\{cite book | last = Toppin | first = Edgar | year = 2010 | title = The Black American in United States History | publisher = Allyn & Bacon| location = Pg 46 | isbn = 9781475961720 \}\}\
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Though Casor was the first person declared a slave in a civil case, there were both black and white indentured servants sentenced to lifetime servitude before him. Many historians describe indentured servant John Punch as the first documented slave when he was sentenced to life in servitude as punishment for escaping in 1640.\{\{Cite journal |title=Out of the Land of Bondage\'94: The English Revolution and the Atlantic Origins of Abolition |first=John |last=Donoghue |publisher=The American Historical Review  |date=2010 |url=http://ahr.oxfordjournals.org/content/115/4/943.full.pdf\}\}Russell, 29 The Punch case was significant because it established the disparity between his sentence as a negro and that of the two European servants who escaped with him (one described as Dutch and one as a Scotchman). It is the first documented case of an African sentenced to lifetime servitude in Virginia and is considered one of the first legal cases to make a racial distinction between black and white indentured servants.Slavery and Indentured Servants Law Library of Congress\{\{cite web|url=http://www.virtualjamestown.org/practise.html |title=Slave Laws |publisher=Virtual Jamestown |date= |accessdate=2013-11-04\}\}\
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===Significance of Casor suit===\
The Casor suit was significant because it demonstrated the culture and mentality of planters in the mid-17th century. The individuals in this trial made assumptions about the society of Northampton County and their place in it. According to historians T.R. Breen and Stephen  Innes, Casor believed that he could form a stronger relationship with his patron Robert Parker than Anthony Johnson had formed over the years with his patrons. Casor considered the dispute to be a matter of patron-client relationship, and this wrongful assumption ultimately lost him the court and the decision. Johnson knew that the local justices shared his basic belief in the sanctity of property. The judge sided with Johnson, although in future legal issues, race played a larger role.Breen and Innes, "Myne Owne Ground," p. 15\
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The Casor suit was also significant as an example of how difficult it was for Africans who were indentured servants to keep from being reduced to slavery. Most African immigrants could not read and had no knowledge of the English language. Slave owners found it easy to take advantage and force them into slavery by simply refusing to acknowledge the completion of their indentured contracts.\{\{Cite journal |title=History of Black Americans: From Africa to the emergence of the cotton kingdom |first=Philip S. |last=Foner |publisher=Oxford University Press  |date=1980 |url=http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=GR7529&chapterID=GR7529-747&path=books/greenwood\}\}  This is what happened in Johnson v. Parker. Even though Casor had two white planters confirming his claim to freedom from his indentured contract with Johnson, the court still ruled in Johnson's favor.Klein, 43-44.\
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==Later life==\
In 1657, Johnson\'92s white neighbor, Edmund Scarborough, forged a letter in which Johnson acknowledged a debt. Johnson did not contest the case. Although Johnson was illiterate and could not have written the letter, the court granted Scarborough 100 acres of Johnson\'92s land to pay off his "debt".\{\{cite book | last = Rodriguez | first = Junius | year 2007 =  | title = Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 2 | publisher = ABC-CLIO | location = Pg 353 | isbn = 9781851095445 \}\} In this early period, free blacks enjoyed "relative equality" with the white community. Around 20% of free blacks in Virginia at this time owned their own homes, and half of those were married to white women.\{\{cite book | last = Brown | first = David | year = 2007 | title = Race in the American South: From Slavery to Civil Rights | publisher = Edinburgh University Press | location = Pg 24 | isbn = 9780748613762 \}\} \
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By 1665, racism was becoming more common. The Virginia Colony had passed a law in 1662 that children were born with the status of their mother, according to the Roman principle of partus sequitur ventrem; therefore, all children of slave women were born into slavery. This was a reversal of English common law, which held that for English subjects, children took the status of their father. Africans were considered foreigners and not English subjects. \
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Johnson moved his family to Somerset County, Maryland. He negotiated a lease on a \{\{convert|300|acre|ha|adj=on\}\} plot of land for ninety-nine years. Johnson used this land to start a tobacco farm, which he named Tories Vineyards.Johnson (1999), p. 44.\
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== References ==\
\{\{Reflist\}\}\
\
===Sources===\
*James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, Hard Road to Freedom: The Story of African America, Rutgers University Press, 2002.\
*Charles Johnson, Patricia Smith, and the WGBH Research Team, Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999.\
*Cox, Ryan Charles. "The Johnson Family: The Migratory Study of an African-American Family on the Eastern Shore". Delmarva Settlers, University of Maryland Salisbury, accessed 16 November 2012.\
*Ira Berlin, Many Thousands Gone, The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America, Harvard University Press, 1998.\
*Virginia, Guide to The Old Dominion, WPA Writers' Program, Oxford University Press, NY, 1940 (p. 378)\
*"Anthony Johnson", Thinkport Library\
*Nash, Gary B., Julie R. Jeffrey, John R. Howe, Peter J. Frederick, Allen F. Davis,  and Allan M. Winkler. The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. 6th ed. New York: Pearson, 2004. 74-75.\
*Matthews, Harry Bradshaw, The Family Legacy of Anthony Johnson: From Jamestown, VA to Somerset, MD, 1619-1995, Oneonta, NY: Sondhi Loimthongkul Center for Interdependence, Hartwick College, 1995.\
* Herbert S. Klein. Slavery in the Americas; A Comparative Study of Virginia and Cuba.\
* Timothy Breen and Stephen Innes. "Myne Own Ground" Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1979/reprint 2004, 25th anniversary edition: Oxford University Press\
* Jack Henderson Russell, The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619-1865, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1913\
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==External links==\
*Anthony Johnson, Africans in America, PBS.org\
*Anthony Johnson, Exploring Maryland's Roots \
\
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\{\{Persondata \
| NAME              = Johnson, Anthony\
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =\
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = Farmer, slave owner\
| DATE OF BIRTH     =\
| PLACE OF BIRTH    = Angola\
| DATE OF DEATH     = 1670\
| PLACE OF DEATH    = Virginia, United States\
\}\}\
\{\{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Anthony\}\}\
\
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\
\
\
\
}
71.89.162.228 (talk) 02:08, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done for now: Nothing can be done with that RTF blob. Please give a description of exactly what you want changed. Jackmcbarn (talk) 02:44, 21 February 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Protected edit request on 21 February 2014 

message: The year range at the very beginning of the article should have an unspaced en dash rather than a spaced em dash. —Frungi (talk) 20:17, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Done --Redrose64 (talk) 21:41, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Protected edit request on 5 April 2014 

message: There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Anthony Johnson (fighter) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you.  —RMCD bot 01:15, 26 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Move discussion in progress

message: Undid reversion because the source cited doesn't meet the same standards of reliability scrutiny that other sources meet. Both Foner and Breen discuss Anthony Johnson's success of being a planter and property owner while overcoming the adversity of indentured servitude, with the Casor vs. Johnson case being only a footnote of a larger umbrella of his accomplishments. Previous talk page discussions address this in more detail.Scoobydunk (talk) 23:13, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Notability 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I just stumbled onto this article and I have no idea what's going on, it's been vandalized beyond recognition  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.51.203.4 (talk) 13:10, 30 August 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: This article is a complete mess

message: An editor has introduced new material justifying their authority to do so with this edit summary, "American Indigenous Accawmacke Indians are authorized to edit this history. Johnson is listed as Indian by Helen Roundtree."  It is fine if they want to introduce this material, if it is adequately sourced, as an alternative theory. The editor claims that Johnson was born as a Native American rather than in Africa.  However, it is not proper to eliminate sourced material that appears to represent the most accepted version.  As the editor themselves says in their edit, "Most references falsely classify him as Black or African American."
While the editor does provide one source, it is not clear how much of the material added comes from this source.  The edits are further complicated because the formatting used screws up the reference templates.  The old status quo of the article should stand until the editor discusses the article here, explains their purpose, and receives some consensus to make reasonable changes. Tom (North Shoreman) (talk) 17:20, 21 January 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Native American or Angolan? 

message: That is a picture of Lewis Hayden not Anthony Johnson. This have been proven Keo mackey (talk) 09:03, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  False picture