within the slave patrols and to detect, encounter, and crush any organized slave meetings that might lead to revolt or rebellion. Slave codes and fugitive slave laws The Fugitive Slave Laws helped enforce the necessity for slave patrols to abide by the law. Although these laws were initially created to keep tensions low between the north and the south, it caused the physical formation of slave patrols. During the Civil War, the theory of Contraband prevented the return of Southern slaves who reached Union-held territory. This helped limit the role of slave patrols/catchers and changed the war. Another form of help for slaves was the Underground Railroad, which aided slaves in their escape to Northern states. Outside of the Underground Railroad, enslaved Black people went further south to ensure their freedom. Black people also formed their own organized networks and means of escape from slavery to Florida, where Black people negotiated with Native Americans and the Spanish government, and were able to live self-determined and free lives. Formerly enslaved people formed their own towns, military, and merged with the Florida population as Seminoles. Formerly imprisoned Europeans, Irish immigrants, and other former institutionalized Europeans were immigrated through race-based policies to found the state of Georgia. They were partially recruited to form a buffer state to stop enslaved Black people from escaping from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia to Florida. Slave patrols in Georgia were formed for this purpose. Free Black cities and armed and trained Black militaries in Florida were a direct challenge to White dominance and profits in slave-owning states. The concept of self-determined freedom was also a direct challenge to the concept that Whites should rule and to the institution of slavery. Slave patrols and plantation police were organized by Whites as legal and extra-legal means to stop this from occurring. The use and physical formation of slave patrols came to its end in 1865 when the Civil War ended. This end, however, is linked to post-Civil War groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, which continued to terrorize and threaten the black community. In South Carolina, colonists began to write laws that constricted slaves long before slave patrols were alive and well. Laws implemented set in motion curfews for slaves, strengthening their militia, preventing slaves from bartering goods, and establishing the Charleston town watch. These are examples of some of the laws and ideas that molded what we