HollywoodBQ said:
I'm not looking for the political he said, she said type argument but, I've heard this line so many times that I would just like to know if there is any historical legitimacy at all to this rhetoric that the roots of the Police in the USA was Slave Patrols to catch escaped slaves.
So I guess there are two parts:
1 - What was the origin of Police in the USA? I'm sure New Amsterdam must have had police
2 - I assume Slave Patrols only existed in the South. When did they start, When did they end?
I know, kind of a dumb series of questions but I figure the TexAgs History Board can crush the talking points in a few seconds. Thanks in advance.
1. Modern policing is a 19th century invention imported from Britain, and not a very good import until reforms began in the early 20th century. Before that, you have sheriffs and constables that were responsible for arresting and holding suspects.
2. I've written about slave patrols (before it was cool) before the Revolution, so I'm less familiar with 19th century patrols. There is a book entitled "Slave Patrols" that's extremely dry and legalistic, but goes into the details of the 19th century patrols. I wouldn't say they were completely analogous to the modern institution of policing, but they served a vital policing function. They were drawn from militias and, as such, were a major reason for Southern states demanding local control of militias and protections for militias in the Constitution. I know there are people here who don't want to address it, but Southerners were TERRIFIED of slave revolts. Terrified. Enough so that they allowed lower class whites the ability to search slave quarters and hold and punish their property if slaves were out without valid passes. The extent of that privilege became very contested over the years, but the principle remained.
Slave Patrols were an idea imported from Barbados. The importance of Barbados gets overlooked in US history, but SC was essentially founded as a colony of Barbados and Virginia's planters learned how to manage slavery from corresponding with Barbadian planters.
SC instituted the first Slave Patrol in what became the US in 1701. It allowed constables the ability to draft men to serve as slave patrollers. In 1704, they modified this act to link slave patrols with the militia. The "Generall" of the militia appointed captains in each town and province to organize and oversee slave patrols. In much of the SC backcountry, this would have been the closest thing to organized policing that many people would have had direct contact with.
Patrollers had to maintain "a good horse, a case of pistols and a carbine, or other gunn, a sword, a cartouch box… under the penalty of tenn shillings for want of any one or more things as aforesaid." As a result, most patrollers, initially, were well-to-do. This changed over time as supplies were stockpiled and provided to patrollers.
In 1721, SC amended their laws again so that every member of an infantry or cavalry militia company was required to spend time as a patroller. This was to prevent complaints that rich men served as patrollers to avoid getting sent off on some border conflict.
A 1734 law paid the patrollers, allowed them to keep any contraband weapons they found, and provided patrollers the authority to "enter into any disorderly house, either of white persons or free negroes, where any negroes or other slaves may be suspected to be tipling and drinking."
A 1737 law ended the payments and required patrollers to pay a certain amount of taxes to be eligible. But they were still allowed to visit every plantation without notifying the planter.
Places like Virginia, with a smaller slave population per capita, and a large number of indentured servants, relied more on constables and tipsters for longer. Virginia finally established a slave patrol system in 1727. Virginia's patrols were only required to patrol during Christmas, Easter, and the Whitsuntide holidays. Under this law, Virginia's patrols never separated from the militia at-large and could even claim the standard pay given to serving militiamen. They were also not allowed to punish slaves, which SC's patrollers could do. The constables handled all punishment.
This changed over time, and Virginia also firmly linked slave patrols to militia service and granted patrollers the right to enter slave quarters without the permission of the planter.
So, there are definitely policing aspects of slave patrols in the American South and they lasted until the end of slavery itself. Slave Patrols would have been the most common interaction with policing that many Southern whites would have had, and the closest to actual policing that many would have done. I wouldn't claim policing was invented in slave patrols, but it absolutely had an impact on how Southerners viewed the role of policing. It clearly impacted the organization and behavior of many of the Reconstruction Era groups like the Klan and the "Rifle Clubs."
