patterroller

plural patterrollers

1. historicalAfrican-American VernacularA member of a slave patrol.

   Where was that ditch? Tentatively she whistled the children's tune, “Run, chillen, run; the patterroller get you—"

   1982, A Girl Called Boy, Clarion Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 83

   2 more examples

   […]I'll break yo neck, I'll crack yo head / I'll wallop you twel I make you think / I'm de patter-roller, you wall-eyed slink!".

   1881, Joel Chandler Harris, The Tar-baby: And Other Rhymes of Uncle Remus, New York: D. Appleton

   One old fellow name John been a run-awayer for four years and de patterrollers tries all dey tricks, but dey can't cotch him. Dey wants him bad, 'cause it 'spire other slaves to run away if he stays a-loose.

   1941, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, volume 16, Washington, DC: Library of Congress, →OCLC, page 248