In some cases, as it was with the white servants, Negroes were given written indentures, of which Russell gives several examples. It was an early practice of the colony to allow "head rights," a certain number of acres of land for every servant imported. In 1651 "head rights" were allowed on the importation of a Negro whose name was Richard Johnson. "Only three years later a patent calling for one hundred acres of land was issued to this negro for importing two other persons. Hence, it appears that Richard Johnson came in as a free negro or remained in a condition of servitude for not more than three years."[54] It was a practice also of those who held servants to allow them the privilege of raising hogs and poultry and of tilling a small plot of ground. The court records show that by this means John Geaween, Emanuel Dregis, and Bashasar Farando, as Negro servants, between 1649 and 1652, accumulated property. Again, there are cases illustrating that the Negro servant received "freedom dues" as the white servants at the close of the term of service.[55] Thus the first and early Negroes of Virginia were servants, not slaves. They were not only servants at first, but also servants in general for a period of years.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In the preparation of dissertation the following works were consulted: Ballagh, James Curtis, White Servitude in the Colony of Virginia (J. H. U. Studies, Thirty-first Series, 1913), and History of Slavery in Virginia (J. H. U. Studies, Twenty-fourth Series, 1902); Bassett, John Spencer, History of Slavery in North Carolina (J. H. U. Studies, Seventeenth Series, 1899), and Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of North Carolina (J. H. U. Studies, Fourteenth Series, 1896); Beatty, William Jennings, The Free Negroes in the Carolinas before 1860 (1920); Brackett, J. R., The Negro in Maryland (J. H. U. Studies, Seventh Series, Extra Volume, 1889); Brown, Alexander, The Genesis of the United States, 1605-1616, Two Volumes (1890), and The First Republic in America (1898); Bruce, Philip Alexander, Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, Two Volumes (1896); Buckingham, J. S., The Slave States of America (1842); Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts, 1652-1798, Edited by Wm. P. Palmer, Six Volume (1875-86); Carroll, Bartholomew Rivers, Historical Collections of South Carolina (1836); Daniels, John, In Freedom's Birth Place, A Study of Boston Negroes (1914); Doyle, J. A., English Colonies in America, Five Volumes (1889); DuBois, W. E. Burghardt, The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America (1896); Eddis, Wm., Letters from America, 1769-77; Hazard, Willis P., Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden Time (1879); Henry, Howell Meadows, The Police Control of the Slave in South Carolina (1914); Henning, William Waller, Statutes at Large of Virginia, 1623-1792, Thirteen Volumes (1812); Hotten, J. C., Original Lists of Emigrants, 1600-1700 (1874); Hurd, John C, The Law of Freedom and Bondage in the United States, Two Volumes (1858-62); Jones, Hugh, The Present State of Virginia (1865); Journal of Negro History, edited by Carter G. Woodson (The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History); Lauber, Almon Wheeler, Indian Slavery in Colonial Times Within Present Limits of the United States (Columbia University Studies, Volume LIV (1913)); Washburn, Emory, Massachusetts and Its Early History: Slavery as it once prevailed in Massachusetts; McCormac, E. I., White Servitude in Maryland 1634-1820 (J. H. U. Studies, Twenty-second Series, 1904); Moore, George H., Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts (1866); Work, Monroe N., Negro Year Book, An Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro; Neill, E. D., History of the Virginia Company of London, 1604-24 (1869) and Virginia Carolorum, 1625-85; Nell, Wm. C., Colored Patriots of the American Revolution (1855); Nieboor, Herman Jeremias, Slavery as an Industrial Institution (1900); Palfrey, John Gorham, History of New England, Five Volumes (1892); Phillips, Ulrich Bonnell, American Negro Slavery (1918); Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, edited by John Russell Bartlett (1856-65); Rivers, William James, A Sketch of the History of South Carolina to the Close of the Proprietary Government by the Revolution of 1719 (1856); Russell, John H., The Free Negro in Virginia 1619-1865 (J. H. U. Studies, Thirty-first Series, 1913); Steiner, Bernard C., History of Slavery in Connecticut (J. H. U. Studies, Series Eleven, 1893); Stevens, William Bacon, A History of Georgia from its First Discovery by Europeans to the Adoption of the Present Constitution in 1798 (1848); Stroud, George M., A Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery in the Several States of America (1827); Thwaites, Ruben Gold, The Colonies, 1492-1750; Turner, Edward Raymond, The Negro in Pennsylvania 1693-1861 (1910); Winthrop's Journal: "History of New England" 1630-1649, Three Volumes. Edited by James Kendall Hosmer.
[1] Many historians have substituted "slave" for "Negro." Russell, Free Negroes in Virginia, p. 16. White servants are also called slaves. Doyle, History of English Colonies in America, II, p. 387; Stevens, History of Georgia, pp. 289, 294.
[2] Several years before 1619, Negroes in England were sentenced to work in the colonies. "Two Moorish thieves [negroes] in London were sentenced to work in the American colonies. And they said no, they would rather die at once." Brown adds: "I do not know whether they were sent to Virginia or not." (The First Republic in America, p. 219. See also postnote 14.) Again, "I do not know that these negroes were the first brought to the colony of Virginia. I do not remember to have seen any contemporary account which says so. The accounts which we have even of the voyages of the company's ships are very incomplete, and we have scarcely an idea of the private trading voyages which would have been most apt to bring such 'purchas' to Virginia." Pory wrote in September, 1619: "'In these five months of my continuance here, there have come at one time or another eleven sail of ships into this river.' If he meant that these eleven ships came in after he did, at least three of them are not accounted for in our annals." Washburn, Slavery as it once prevailed in Massachusetts, pp. 198, 327.
[3] Nell, Colored Patriots of the American Revolution, p. 59.
[4] Rivers, History of South Carolina, p. 113; Buckingham, Slave States of America, I, p. 19.
[5] The Journal of Negro History, III, p. 33; Work, Negro Year Book, p. 152. "The second settler in Alabama was a Negro."
[6] Ballagh gives an interesting and the most reliable account of this ship and these Negroes. (History of Slavery in Virginia, p. 8.) A heated controversy took place over what should be done with the Negroes. "And so the people of her were all disposed of for the year to the use of the company till it could be truly known to whom the right lyeth." Brown, The First Republic in America, pp. 359, 368, 391, 325-27.
[7] Thwaites, The Colonies, p. 98.