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John Punch

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Beginning of African Enslavement In the English Colonies and the USA
John Punch is one of the first servants on record to be sentenced to slavery on the grounds of race in what we now call the USA. In other words, this was the beginning of African enslavement in the English colonies and subsequently the USA.
Punch was a servant of the Virginia planter Hugh Gwyn, a wealthy landowner, a justice and one of the few members of the House of Burgesses, representing Charles River County (which would become York County in 1642).
In 1640, Punch ran away to Maryland with two European indentured servants of Gwyn. The three men were returned to Virginia and on 9 July, the Virginia Governor's Council, which served as the colony's highest court, sentenced the two Europeans to have their terms of indenture extended by four years each, but they sentenced Punch to a life of servitude. In addition, the council sentenced the three men to thirty lashes each. Wikipedia


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