Georgia Slave Patrol

History is sometimes unimaginably ugly.

Especially when it concerns slavery.

By reading this, perhaps you can gain a greater understanding of how this abusive practice was effectively translated into vigilantism, and lynch mobs.

Perhaps as well, it’s easy to see the roots of the modern practice of “stop and frisk”  which was used widely in New York City, most notably under then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg, then a Republican, and other such stops and detainments simply because of the individual’s skin color, or ethnicity.

Essentially, such a procedure is a violation and denial of the Constitutionally guaranteed right of freedom of movement.

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Beginning in 1757 Georgia’s colonial assembly required white landowners and residents to serve as slave patrols.

Asserting that slave insurrections must be prevented, the legislature stipulated in “An Act for Establishing and Regulating of Patrols” that groups “not exceeding seven” would work in districts twelve miles square. The statute, modeled on South Carolina’s earlier patrol law, ordered white adults to ride the roads at night, stopping all slaves they encountered and making them prove that they were engaged in lawful activities. Patrollers required slaves to produce a pass, which stated their owner’s name as well as where and when they were allowed to be away from the plantation and for how long. Patrols operated in Georgia until slavery was abolished at the end of the Civil War (1861-65).

A Georgia statute ordered White adults to ride the roads at night, stopping all slaves they encountered and making them prove that they were engaged in lawful activities. Patrollers required slaves to produce a pass, which stated their owner’s name as well as where and when they were allowed to be away from the plantation and for how long.
From The Underground Railroad, by William Still

Whites could hire substitutes to patrol for them; absentees were fined. Much of the burden of patrol duty fell to non-slaveholders, who often resented what they sometimes saw as service to the planter class. The Chatham County grand jury complained in the mid-1790s about the difficulty it faced in enforcing the patrol requirement. By the early nineteenth century it became necessary to pay people to perform what had been voluntary unpaid service. In 1819 Savannah‘s city watch received one dollar for every evening they served and shared in any reward for the forced return of fugitive slaves.

To disperse any nighttime meetings, patrollers visited places where slaves often gathered. Owners feared such gatherings allowed slaves to trade stolen goods for liquor and other forbidden items.

River patrols were organized in Savannah and Augusta to combat “midnight depredations” and to

On the Bleeding Edge of the Front Line

Uncle Dean never spoke to his blood relatives about his WWII service – even though they inquired – which was for them, perplexing, and they eventually stopped asking. However, he voluntarily spoke at length about it with me.

Perhaps it was because we shared a common bond of military service, I don’t know. They never understood why he didn’t talk about his experience. His Purple Hearts, Bronze and Silver Stars, and other medals of valor that

Huntsville’s I-565 Chapman Mountain Deathtrap

The Interstate 565 crossing over Chapman Mountain in Huntsville, AL is rapidly becoming a deathtrap.

Yesterday (Sunday, 28 March 2010), 55 year-old Madison county resident Joseph E. Hargrave, driver of an 18-wheeler/BIG TRUCK, lost control of his EAST-BOUND truck, crossed the median and flipped, blocking traffic from 12:40PM until after sundown Sunday.

He was taken to Huntsville Hospital with minor injuries.

That was the blocked lane about which I’d earlier written.

Mr. Hargrave’s unfortunate wreck wasn’t