Anthony was held in captivity by Col. Lewis Morris of Morrissania in what is now known as The Bronx. He was imported directly from West Africa by way of Barbados. In 1673, he was confiscated by the Dutch when they reclaimed territorial possession of New York and New Jersey for a brief period of time.

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In late 1673, Louis Dubois purchased two enslaved Africans named Anthony and Susanna from the Dutch sheriff in what is now Kingston, NY. This is the earliest recorded purchase of enslaved Africans by a European founder of the community we now call New Paltz. However, Anthony and Susanna fled from Dubois in early 1674, crossing the Hudson River and returning to the plantation of their former enslaver, Col. Lewis Morris, in what is now the Bronx. Over the following 6 years, Dubois and Morris engaged in a drawn out and bitter legal dispute over ownership of Anthony and Susanna.