![]() ![]() In 1654, Johnson took Casor to court to force him back into servitude. He was an indentured servant who had fled from his boss, Anthony Johnson (who, ironically, had also been among those first African captives brought to the 13 colonies until he earned his freedom and bought his own piece of land). ![]() The second example is the case of John Casor. While the white indentured servants had their terms extended by four years each, Punch had his term of service extended to the rest of his life. One is the story of John Punch, a black indentured servant who ran away from his boss along with two white indentured servants in 1640. There are two examples of this shift from indentured servitude to the institution of legal slavery for blacks in the British-American colonies. ![]() However, the Africans' status in the United States slowly deteriorated over the course of the century, as colonies slowly added laws to permit slavery and restrict the rights of Africans. Unlike the white indentured servants, however, the enslaved Africans did not volunteer their labor. In the British colonies, they maintained a legal status similar to white indentured servants. The first Africans brought to the colonies of what would be the United States had been enslaved by the Portugese. While Africans in colonial America held very little social or political power, their contributions not only supported the Southern colonies but led to their eventual prosperity. ![]()
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