SUMMARYPhysical control was law, not story: statutes, court rulings, photographs, ads [Connections: espionage peonage, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORD (law)Virginia, Oct 1669, "An act about the casuall killing of slaves": if a slave resisted a master "correcting him" and died, the death "shall not be accounted felony" (Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. 2, p. 270; verify page)
RECORD (court)State v. Mann, North Carolina Supreme Court, 1830, Judge Thomas Ruffin: "The power of the master must be absolute to render the submission of the slave perfect." John Mann, who had hired an enslaved woman named Lydia, was cleared of battery
RECORD (photo + army medical exam)Gordon ("Whipped Peter"), photographed Apr 2, 1863 at Baton Rouge by McPherson & Oliver during a Union army medical exam; the back of the card carries the surgeon's report (J. W. Mercer, 47th Massachusetts). Library of Congress, item 2018648117
RECORD (enslavers' own ads)Runaway ads describe people by their whip scars and brands so they could be caught. Thousands are searchable in Cornell's Freedom on the Move database
LENS (WW9)The law made the control legal, the patrols and ads made it a surveillance system, and the scars are the proof on the body: espionage peonage
SOURCELibrary of Congress; NC State "Ruffin's Decision in State v. Mann" exhibit; sageamericanhistory.net (Virginia statutes); Freedom on the Move (Cornell).