their masters as laborers the next day. As a consequence, overly-brutal patrollers could expect retaliation from slave owners. Diminishing use of slave patrols American Civil War The Civil War, which lasted four years, directly threatened the very existence of slavery and, in turn, slave patrols. The first year after the Civil War began, slave patrols increased. Confederates were expecting slave revolts, which inspired them to appoint more patrols. As the war dragged on, more and more White men were being called upon to serve in the Confederate army. White men who would have served in slave patrols had they remained in their communities, went to serve in the Confederate army. Some young men who were turned away by the army, mostly for medical reasons, ended up taking places within the slave patrols. As slave owners entered the Confederate army, some slaves lost the shield they once had to protect them from the harsh and brutal beatings. After the Emancipation Proclamation, the increasing number of White men being called to the militias of the South in 1862 and 1863 resulted in many slave patrols simply not having enough men to be as active as they once were. As the Union army moved into local areas and communities, the likelihood that enslaved people that could flee to the areas controlled by the Union increased. Enslaved people who were considered obedient started to disappear in the night, running toward the Union army to emancipate themselves. Reconstruction With the war lost, Southern Whites' fears of African Americans increased in 1865 due to Reconstruction governments that were perceived as oppressive to the South. Even though slavery and patrols were legally ended, the patrol system still survived. Almost immediately in the aftermath of the war, informal patrols sprang into action. Later, city and rural police squads, along with the help of Union army officers, revived patrolling practices among free men. During the post-Civil War Reconstruction period of 1865–1877, old-style patrol methods resurfaced and were enforced by postwar Southern police officers and also by organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. See also Reverse Underground Railroad Slave catcher Underground Railroad Law enforcement in the United States References Further reading Time Warner Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives Slavery in the United States Law enforcement in the United States Defunct law enforcement agencies of the United States