“S” is for slave patrols

“S” is for slave patrols. Slave patrols were a crucial mechanism of slave control in the colonial and antebellum periods of South Carolina history. Like South Carolina's earliest slave codes, the earliest slave patrol systems were based on Barbadian models. Official slave patrolling began in 1704. Following the Stono Rebellion of 1739, the Commons House of Assembly passed the Negro Act of 1740, which provided for constant, regular patrols. Patrol captains divided their beats systematically; most were not large and ranged between ten and fifteen miles. The typical patrol consisted of a handful of men on horseback with three principal tasks: to search slave quarters, to disperse slave gatherings, and to guard roads and towns from delinquent slaves. The system of slave patrols established in 1740 would last, with minor revision, until the end of the Civil War.