Gardner, who had emancipated a slave hearing the name of Napho.[1]
In the interval between 1635 and 1700, there were probably a number of persons of African blood in the Colony, who had raised themselves to a condition of moderate importance in the community. There were certainly some who were able to write.[2] It is known that patents to land were obtained by a few. Thus in 1651, one hundred acres lying on Pongoteague River in Northampton County were granted to Richard Johnson, a negro, upon the basis of head rights which were represented by two white men. In the description of this tract, it is stated to have been contiguous to estates owned by John Johnson and Anthony Johnson, both of the African race.[3] Two years later, Benjamin Dole, a member of the same race, received a patent to three hundred acres in Surry County, which was due him for the transportation of six persons.[4] The transfer to negroes of land purchased by them from private grantors was not uncommon; thus in 1668, Robert Jones, a tailor residing in York, sold to John Harris, an African freeman, fifty
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1690-1694, p. 328, Va. State Library.
- ↑ See Records of Middlesex County, original vol. 1679-1694, p. 14. See also Records of Northampton County, original vol. 1689-1698, p. 250.
- ↑ Va. Land Patents, vol. III, p.294. Richard Johnson was a carpenter (see Records of Accomac County, original vol. 1663-1666, p. 54) and a mulatto (Ibid., original vol. 1682-1697, p. 160). We find in the Records of Northampton County entry of a suit by Anthony Johnson for the purpose of recovering his negro servant, who had been appropriated by Robert Parker. See original vol. 1651-1654, p. 226. There seems to leave been some dispute is to the land owned by John Johnson, as the following entry in the Records of Northampton County, original vol. 1651-1664, p. 200, shows: “Whereas John Johnson, Negro, hath this day made his complaint in Court that John Johnson, Sr., detaineth a patent to 450 acres, which John Johnson, Jr., claims, John Johnson, Sr., is ordered to appear in Court.”
- ↑ Va. Land Patents, vol. 1655-1664, p. 71.
