February 1727/28 session
Virginia authorizes militia patrols against enslaved people’s gatherings
Colonial Virginia
Virginia authorized county militia commanders to send patrols to disperse gatherings of enslaved people and prevent organizing. Invoking fears about holiday gatherings, the act empowered patrols to apprehend enslaved people assembled contrary to the 1723 law and deliver them to the next constable. Militia employed for more than two days at one time were entitled to payment for the entire period.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
Hening dates the session from 1 February 1727 in George II’s first regnal year: 1728 under January-start dating. The label identifies the session, not an established assent day. The act specified a five-year term. It did not originate all slave policing, and later patrol laws’ broader search, punishment and tax-exemption powers should not be read into this provision.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 3; supplied pp. 39–58 and bibliography pp. 690–691, edition/year unidentified
- Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. 4, p. 182 session heading and pp. 197–204, chapter V, especially XVII–XVIII and XXIII ↗
- Encyclopedia Virginia, transcription of the militia act, XVII–XVIII, pp. 202–203; heading retains 1727 ↗