Professor Sally Hadden discusses her book, Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virgina and the Carolinas. Prof. Hadden explains the origin and purpose of the slave patrol, how the patrols differed from the militia, who made them up and what the patrols were charged with accomplishing. We discuss how slave patrols operated before and were stressed during the Civil War. Additionally, what became of these patrols and how there is a direct throughline to the Klu Klux Klan and modern police.
Dr. Sally Hadden is a professor and the director of graduate studies in the Department of History at Western Michigan University. Hadden writes about and researches law and history in early America. She has published one monograph as a solo author: Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas (Harvard University Press, 2001).