What is a pateroller?

Answer 1

If you mean "Paddy Roller", the definition is one of a group of 3 to 6 whites often selected from state militias to "Patrol" the roads and plantations of the antebellum south looking for and hunting down runaway or awol or runaway slaves. For a slave being caught by a paddy roller meant maiming, rape or death. They were paid to be sadistic in their treatment of runaways to discourage escape. The Paddy Rollers are the forerunners of modern Sheriff departments and avert civil war, populated various ku Alix Karlan's, serving the same purpose of suppressing black peoples freedom of movement and association and any civil rights that freedmen would be entitled to.