Unnamed Patrol-riders

In The Unvanquished, when Buck and Buddy McCaslin allow their slaves to live in the plantation big house and leave the place at night by the back door, the white inhabitants of the area share stories or rumors of "McCaslin slaves dodging the moonlit roads and the Patrol-riders to visit other plantations" (249). "Patrol-riders" - more frequently referred to as 'patrollers,' 'paterollers' or 'paterrollers' (see The Unvanquished, for an example from Faulkner) - were armed white men whose job was to apprehend slaves found off their plantation after dark and to pursue fugitive slaves.