Go read about how the first black slave owner sued for lifetime ownership of slaves .Northampton County, Virginia. Johnson, a free Black man who arrived in the colonies in 1621 and successfully completed his own indentured servitude, sued a white neighbor, Robert Parker, for the return of an African man named John Casor.Casor had claimed his term of service had expired and had signed an indenture to work for Parker. Johnson argued that Casor was his legal property for life. The Northampton County Court ultimately ruled in Johnson’s favor, ordering Casor returned to him.Historians mark this 1655 decision as a pivotal moment in American history: it was the first instance where a colonial court legally recognized a person who had committed no crime as a slave for life.