The document titled “An Ordinance to Organize and Establish Patrols for the Police of Slaves in the Parish of St. Landry” is one early example of attempts by white people to control the actions of Black people through violence and coercion. St. Landry Parish is one of the oldest parishes in Louisiana, tracing its roots back to the French occupation of the area. Opelousas, its county seat, was the site of the area’s government during the Spanish occupation of the area at the end of the eighteenth century. By the time of the Civil War, St. Landry Parish was a major center of cotton production in Louisiana, with a significant Black population“enslaved and free”and a large Creole French population. Some of them were descendants of French settlers who had arrived in the state after the Haitian revolution early in the nineteenth century.