You don't know what we do here at all.
No, it's because of Anthony Johnson, arrived 1619. He was bartered for supplies to Virginia into indenture by a ship bound for NY,. He survived the massacre, worked his time, got free, given his headrights/land, and became a tobacco farmer. He had his own indentured and they earned land. He used the court for various disputes with neighbors. He disputed his neighbor's claim to his servant, John Casor. He appealed to the court on the basis that he had John his whole life. The court granted him return of John and he was decided as a slave for life. This is touted by people as an argument that slavery began with a black man, Anthony, this being the earliest colonial record of lifelong slavery. But that really only meant it's the earliest surviving written official record. The family had to move as things changed there. The land his son owned was taken from them as the decision was made that no blacks could own land. His children married white woman, Indian man, and other blacks. Very different picture in those early days than we are told by 1619ers.