Slave patrols first began in South Carolina in 1704 and spread throughout the thirteen colonies, lasting well beyond the American Revolution. As colonists enslaved more Africans and the population of enslaved people in South Carolina grew, especially with the invention of the cotton gin, so did the fear of slave uprisings. They developed slave patrols when other means of slave control failed to quell enslaved people’s resistance. Their biggest concern was how to keep enslaved people on the plantations being held against their will, since that is where enslaved populations were highest. Initially, slave owners offered incentives to the non slave owning whites, such as tobacco and money, to urge them to be more vigilant in the capture of runaway slaves. When this approach failed, slave patrols were formally established. Legislators introduced laws that enlisted white people in the regulation of enslaved people’s activities and movement. Black people were subjected to questioning, searches, and other harassment. Slaves who were encountered without passes from their white “master” were expected to be returned to their owners, as stated in the slave code. If caught by patrols and returned to their masters, punishments included whippings and other physical violence, and the threat of being placed on the auction block and sold away from their families, an option for masters who no longer wanted to deal with “non-compliant” slaves.

With the war lost, Southern Whites’ fears of African Americans increased in 1865 due to Reconstruction governments that were perceived as oppressive to the South. Even though slavery and patrols were legally ended, the patrol system still survived. Almost immediately in the aftermath of the war, informal patrols sprang into action. Later, city and rural police squads, along with the help of Union army officers, revived patrolling practices among free men. During the post-Civil War Reconstruction period of 1865–1877, old-style patrol methods resurfaced and were enforced by postwar Southern police officers and also by organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan.

Photo from Library of Congress.