Keywords
Policing
As a keyword, Policing describes the methods used to enforce conditions like slavery, which also reflect colonial tendencies toward dehumanization. These methods include subjecting individuals to physical and mental control, as well as the threat of losing loved ones or of being in an unfamiliar place. Policing tactics also reflect the threat that many enslaved posed through their ability to develop ways to resist and to adapt to the changing conditions imposed upon them.
Gay, an enslaved man in the documents, recounts his experience of being forced to wear iron as he was transported over 100 miles and thirty four hours from New Orleans to Natchez. His story attests to the types of violence that was used by enslavers, government functionaries, and others, to police enslaved and free people’s behavior. Whether personally subjected to this and other forms of violence, the threat of violence circulated widely among free and enslaved people. Despite this, archival documents provide evidence of the ability of people to create community, resist, and live.
