Slave Patrols Become Institutionalized Law Enforcement Across the South

By 1800 all Southern states had institutionalized slave patrols, armed, mounted units empowered to stop any Black person (enslaved or free) and demand proof of freedom or a pass, enter slave quarters at will, administer summary beatings, and return freedom-seeking people to their enslavers. South Carolina's patrol system, dating to 1704, became the template. Patrols were typically composed of lower-class white men fulfilling a civic obligation and empowered to use any force necessary. Formerly enslaved people described patrols as a constant terror. The institution constituted a racially exclusive law enforcement body whose explicit purpose was to maintain the racial caste system through violence and surveillance.