Aspects of Slavery and Freedom Seeking in North Carolina
Fire-Restrictions
The experience and anticipation of resistance, vengeance, and general acts of defiance pushed slaveholders to find ways to restrict enslaved people's mobility and arrest subversive behavior.
Slaveholders also desired to stop subversive activity out of their fear of unpredictable black behavior and frustrated acts of resistance, and the desire to gain greater control over slave labor mainly to secure wealth. North Carolina, like other states, developed slave codes.
Discussing some of these restrictions are important in order to gain a wider context of the institution of slavery, gain insights into what enslaved people faced from a legal standpoint relating to the social behavior of whites, and become familiar with the ongoing battle between the enslaved and the slaveholders.
In order to maintain the institutions of slavery, leaders of the state had to ensure that the enslaved were not helped to overturn the institution in no way; therefore, laws and customs were first formed to prevent the premature end of slavery by members of the slaveholding class-other whites. Other restrictions were directly toward enslaved people and to prevent their intellectual growth, economic activity, and mental mobility. Some restrictions are as follows: enslaved people could not teach others to read, enslaved people were not permitted to sell spirituous liquors, and it was illegal for enslaved people to meet for the purpose of dancing without permission.
In addition, enslaved people were forbidden to hunt with guns. “Anyone who found a slave so hunting might take the gun for his own use and carry the slave to the nearest constable [sheriff or jail], who should act once give the slave twenty lashes on his bare back and the owner should pay the same reward as was paid for taking up a runaway.”
To prevent unimpeded mobility and respond to the threat of slave rebellion, in 1753, slave patrols were established. Patrols were placed to restrict the physical and mental movement of enslaved people.
As patrols became a staple in North Carolina, enslaved people had to account for the presence of patrols in making plans when they wanted to travel without permission from their slaveholders.
Patrols were also giving power to search the slave quarters, seeking out weapons and other forbidden items such as reading materials or stolen items. For example, “in 1779, it [patrols] was required to make a general search once a month and to report to the County Court. Slaves off their master’s plantations on Sunday were to be arrested, unless they had passes or were in the company of a white man.”
Patrols were also in charge of visiting “suspected places, to disperse assemblages of slaves, to be diligent in arresting runaways, to detect thefts, and to report persons who traded with slaves.” For the slave community, patrols made secrecy and memory all the more important.
The effectiveness of patrol varied based on the place and time. Often many white citizens did not want to be force to patrol and neglected their duties when patrol duties fell to their responsibility. One writer noted that he refused to continue to do so after two nights of patrol. “The reason why I refused was this, orders were given to search every negro house for books or prints of any kind, and Bibles and hymn books were particularly mentioned. And should we find any, our orders were to inflict punishment by whipping the slave until he informed who gave them to him, or how they came by them.” [testimony of Mr. Hiram White]
Slaveholders, too, sometimes resented patrols and searches. “Many owners felt that it was a violation of their primacy for patrollers to enter slave quarters on their plantation and search for contraband. Other slaveholders refused to submit to a patroller’s authority to whip their slaves, and for that reason, patrollers were often the target of lawsuits.”
The Risk of patrolling (The North Carolinian September 07, 1850). To see another example of patrol neglect, click here
As theft was the typical problem of the slave institution, slave law forbade slaves from trading without consent of one’s slaveholder to combat theft. Nonetheless, theft and selling were hard to contain, and this is shown by the fact that “between 1826 and 1833 a series of laws enumerated the articles which slaves might not sell without the consent of their masters.”
The need to continue to find ways to prevent enslaved persons from selling and trading shows that enslaved people did not find it difficult to find ways to trade despite the law. Moreover, trade between enslaved persons and the whites was never restrained.
Click here to read more about the slave and free black codes: North Carolina. Slaves and Free Persons of Color. An Act Concerning Slaves and Free Persons of Color
Despite the law, true control of the enslaved rested on violence, the threat of violence, and punishment. The law could only do as much, as there were persons to enforce the law, and this tended to not be as useful, as the laws were often customarily enforced.
Laws were ambiguous and discretionary, and enforcement was often according to local customs and user advantages. In fact, the inconsistency of enforcement is best understood when thinking through the lens of who gained the advantage. Laws were either enforced or not enforced depending on advantage. If advantage could be gained from ignoring the law, then it was ignored. If advantage could be gained by enforcing the law, then it was enforced.
Although the right to hunt with guns was against the law, it was common to find slaves hunting with guns. In fact, some “by the book” slaveholders such as William Lockhart petitioned the court for Reuven, an enslaved man, to carry a gun of his plantation—see petition here Petition
The law and its enforcement of the laws was not only carried out by citizens, citizens on patrol duties, but also by citizens who worked as sheriffs. Like patrols, the office of sheriff began in colonial North Carolina. The sheriff had a number of duties. In regard to slavery, sheriffs served as jail keepers, and their responsibilities included watching over runaways or enslaved people held to prevent their running away or serve as punishment for another crime. Sheriffs also had the job of raising troops to stop slave insurrections and detaining slaves for debt. If the debt remained unpaid, they had duties to sell slaves in a public auction. They also had to list notices in local towns and newspapers about captured runaways and sell unclaimed enslaved persons in public auctions.