In April 1712, a group of enslaved Africans set fire to a building in New York City. Nine white people died in the flames. At least 20 Black people were hunted and publicly killed, warning others to never resist again, including those attending secret night classes.
But New York also implemented another punishment whose legacy impacts today.
The lantern law. In March 1713, a law regulating the autonomy of enslaved people at night passed, declaring, “No Negro or Indian Slave do presume to be…in any of the streets…without a lanthorn.” And it didn’t stop there.
The rules developed into criminalizing Black people gathering at funerals, condemning “disorderly” public joy, and deputizing any white person to stop enslaved people walking at night without a light revealing who they were and who they belonged to.
Centuries later, the modern version of this could be cameras or stop-and-frisk. But that lies within a larger strategy called “omnipresence.” The state needs to watch us at all times. It’s so much the norm that Black neighborhoods are exposed to artificial light pollution twice as much as white ones.
Anti-Black surveillance goes far back in history because our Blackness is synonymous with resistance and criminality. But resistance will get us to the liberated future we deserve. A future where we will be seen as people, not watched as property.