Slavery and the Origins of the American Police State May 31, 2020 | 0 By Ben Fountain From the beginning, some Americans have been able to move more freely than others They were called patrollers or, variously, “paterollers,” “paddyrollers,” or “patterolls,” and they were meant to be part of the solution to Colonial America’s biggest problem, labor. Unlike Great Britain, which had a large, basically immobile peasant class that could be forced to work for subsistence wages, there weren’t enough cheap bodies in America to do the grunt work. If you were a planter looking to make your fortune in rice or tobacco—the New World’s cash crops—you had to size up to industrial scale, and for that you needed bodies, armies of bodies, a labor force that could be made to work for terms no less brutal than those inflicted on the miserables of Europe. Posted in Commentary - The Southern Truth, Education Leave a Comment Name (required) Email (will not be published) (required) Comment Click here to cancel reply. Related Posts Too Many Black Homeless People to Be a Priority for Mayor Bass June 2, 2023 | No Comments » “The Art of the Story: Our Stories Told On Screen, In Print and Through Museums” Panel Presentation Highlighted at Beverly Hills West (CA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated Induction Ceremony Luncheon May 27, 2023 | No Comments » The Southern Truth: CNN & Fox News Cleans House with Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson Same Day, What’s Really Going On? April 24, 2023 | 2 Comments » The Southern Truth: Autocracy, Not Democracy, is On Display at Los Angeles City Hall With the Selection, Not Election, of Heather Hutt April 12, 2023 | No Comments » The Southern Truth: Vigilante Justice In Arkabutla, Mississippi is a Systemic Condition of Hatred from the Heart, Not Guns February 19, 2023 | No Comments »