Every commander in his turn, upon receiving notice from his
chief, was to cover the local beat on the night appointed, searching slave
quarters, though with as little disturbance as possible to the inmates,
arresting any free negroes or strange whites found where they had no proper
authority or business to be, whipping slaves encountered at large without
passes or unless on the way to or from the distant homes of their wives,
and seizing any arms and any runaway slaves discovered.[14] The police code
of the neighboring parish of East Feliciana in 1859 went on further to
prescribe trials and penalties for slaves insulting or abusing white
persons, to restrict their carrying of guns, and their assemblage, to
forbid all slaves but wagoners to keep dogs, to restrict citizens in their
trading with slaves, to require the seizure of self-styled free negroes not
possessing certificates, and to prescribe that all negroes or mulattoes
found on the railroad without written permits be deemed runaway slaves and
dealt with as the law regarding such directed.[15]
[Footnote 14: _Police Regulations of the Parish of West Baton Rouge (La.),
passed at a regular meeting held at the Court House of said Parish on the
second and third days of June, A.
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