“Slave” passes were handwritten pieces of paper that enslaved people were required to carry whenever they traveled alone. Enslavers scribbled their names, destination, and return dates on slips that patrollers stopped and checked along their routes.
Those who were literate used their skills to liberate. Frederick Douglass could read and write, so he outsmarted this system by forging passes for himself and other enslaved folks.
These passes reveal how deeply rooted white supremacy is and how the legacy of white surveillance affects us today, particularly in policing and education.
There’s an unmistakable parallel between “slave” passes and NYC’s infamous stop and frisk policy which allowed cops to stop, interrogate, and search people based on “reasonable suspicion.”
Blackness was the only “suspicion” they needed.
In primary education’s school-to-prison pipeline, Black children are routinely overpoliced. 31% of student-related arrests in the U.S. are Black, even though our students only represent 16% of total enrollment. Could seemingly innocent practices like hall pass enforcement be criminalizing our children?
White vigilantes who jump to call the police or harm us after assuming we don’t belong somewhere are also playing into the racist legacy of surveillance.
White surveillance can be deadly, but we don’t have to play their games. Like Douglass, we must find ways over their hurdles, reaching back for our people every time we leap.