John Punch

John Punch, an African, James Gregory, and another white man named Victor were all indentured servants, and they contracted with a Virginian named Hugh Gwyn during the 1630s. These three men each performed similar tasks and felt so exploited that each was willing to take risks to pursue freedom and run away. Though fleeing under similar circumstances, the fates of the runagates differed once all were captured, reflecting the nascent development of racial distinctions in colonial law.

The two white European servants were sentenced to extended terms of four and three additional years of indenture. However, Punch’s sentence declared that his status in “being Negro” was “to serve his master or assigns for the time of his natural life.” This 1640 case is considered the first criminal case showing disparate treatment of sentencing of people of equal social status whose only distinction before the colonial court was that of race.

Further, while little is known about John Punch’s life following this court ruling, his case is historically significant as it set a precedent for the development of race-based slavery in the American colonies, marking a pivotal step toward the institutionalization of lifelong servitude for captive Africans.

Edgar A. Toppin, in A Biographical History of Blacks Since 1528, writes: “Thus, the black man, John Punch, became a slave, unlike two white indentured servants who merely had to serve a longer term. This was not the first known case in Virginia involving slavery. It was significant because it was documented.”

The Punch decision was not reversed, nor did Virginia’s colonial governor veto it as it should have been since life-long slavery for the offense of escaping from an indentured servitude contract was not a permitted punishment on British soil under the English Magna Carta. This case has been deemed the first legal sanctioning of lifelong slavery in America. The Punch case is credited with giving rise to the targeted repression of people of African ancestry within colonial America’s criminal courts. Thus, Punch is “Negro Zero” when it comes to documented unequal treatment of blacks in American criminal courts.