Slave patrols as militia duty/service

FedericoFCavada

First Sergeant
Joined
Jan 27, 2015
Location
San Antonio, Texas
From the State Archives of Alabama, we can look at portions of John J. Ormand, Arthur P. Bagby and George Goldthwaite The Code of Alabama (Montgomery: Brittan and DeWold, 1852).

https://archives.alabama.gov/cornerstone/slavecode1852/title_page.html

I refer you to the original pages 234-245, 300-93, 589-97:

http://www.constitutionreader.com/reader/chapter.engz?doc=constitution&chapter=OEBPS/Text/ch82.xhtml

also

https://constitutingamerica.org/ala...tion-a-reader-published-by-hillsdale-college/


We have no real idea to what extent these provisions and laws were carried out? Still, to summarize:

§983--1. White male slaveholders younger than 60, and able bodied free whites generally between 18-45 years old, unless exempt, were expected to serve as slave patrol members as militia duty...
§984--During the 2nd week of March, every year, the JoP compiles a list of all persons subject to patrol duty... Divide the whole number into detachments of not less than four, no more than six, one member of which is the "leader" of the patrol.
§985--The senior justice must compile the lists, record the term of service "not less than two nor more than three weeks"... Per annum, presumably? _Where are such lists, if extant, one wonders?_
§986--The list is then delivered to the constable in the 2nd week in March, which is "served" on the leader of each detachment, or leaving the list at his place of residence...
§987--If the leader is sick or absent, the constable must notify the next person on the list, and so on... The leader then had to notify the other patrol members within a further five days time. ...
§990--2. At least once a week at night, during a "term of service" but "oftener" when the JoP required it, or if a "credible person" requested it, or if there was some sort of "evidences of insubordination" or plot, outbreak, insurrection or unlawful assembly of slaves or free persons of color....
§991-- Patrol detachments may send a substitute to patrol in his stead with approval of patrol leader.
§992--3. "The patrol has power to enter, in a peaceable manner, upon any plantation; to enter by force, if necessary, all negro cabins or quarters, kitchens and outhouses [!], and to apprehend all slaves who may there be found, not belonging to the plantation or household, without a pass from their owner or overseer, or strolling from place to place, without authority.
§993--The patrol has power to punish laves found under the circumstances recited in the preceding section, by stripes [i.e. flogging/ whipping], not exceeding thirty-nine." ...

§997--if failure to appear, the absent patroller will be fined ten dollars.
§998--Written report at expiration of term on the numbers of times his group patrolled, any absences without excuse, anyone so designated would be called before the justice and if cause why was judged unacceptable, a fine assessed.
§999--Failure to make a report within a month after expiration of term is a misdemeanor, fined $20.

Chapter IV. Slaves and Free Negroes.

Article 1020 denied gun ownership or even possession of arms by slaves. So, as noted by any number of authors and historians, the slave code is for all practical purposes an "anti-Bill of Rights."

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