Opinion: Policing black Americans is a long-standing, and ugly, American tradition
An 1858 fugitive slave ad for Lavenia. By Vanessa Holden and Edward E. Baptist March 6 at 1:21 PM Vanessa Holden is an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky. Edward E. Baptist is a professor at Cornell University.
These incidents are not historically unusual. What’s new is the outcome, at least in some of the cases. For virtually the first time, white Americans have faced social disapproval for being caught on camera in the act of treating utterly normal behavior by black people as criminal. But people like “BBQ Becky” are not new. They continue a long tradition that began in slavery.
Take a look at this ad for Lavenia, from a December 1858 newspaper. Her enslaver, D.G. Hughes, noted that Lavenia had run away back in May and may have been trying to return to Richmond. If Lavenia had family in Virginia, no wonder she was trying to return. Lavenia’s escape testifies to her resistance and perseverance, but her attempt to go where she wanted to go was by definition illegal.
Other laws not only permitted but also required whites — called “inhabitants” of the colonies — to stop any “Negro” they saw to check for a pass from an enslaver. Without a pass, whites could assume that “suspects” were fugitives. Later, the U.S. Constitution would require states to return “persons held to service or labor” who escaped from one state to another. This agreement helped cement together the new nation.
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