Topic summary
Pass laws
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Pass law.
Summary
Pass laws date "back to 1760 in the Cape when slaves moving between urban and rural areas were required to carry passes authorizing their travel". The pass laws, "had entitled police at any time to demand that [Native] Africans show them a properly endorsed document or face arrest", hindering their freedom of movement. This meant that it restricted where they could live, which in turn then "tied them to their white employers, underpinning a system of cheap labor and humiliating subjection". Their implementation over time arose from two contradictory needs. The white population in South Africa utilised these laws as "an 'exclusionary' need to obtain political security by controlling and policing the number of [Native] Africans in 'white' areas, and an 'inclusionary' need to ensure a supply of cheap labor within these areas". The legislation and practices associated with the pass laws have changed over time.