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Institutions of Order

Like most southern counties, Mecklenburg County had a county seat with a courthouse, the primary institution of order. 

 

Religion influenced the laws enacted by the state legislature and enforced in the courthouse, but economic prosperity motivated disciplinary patterns.

The evangelical churches operated as disciplinary forces and punished their members for the immoral behaviors. 

 

Evangelical religions targeted behaviors that threatened the family, but in the nineteenth century, they altered enforcement patterns.   In particular, these churches fervently challenged alcohol consumption. 

The court only prosecuted the black population for felony crimes, but the church disciplined black members for moral misconduct on an equal level with white members. 

 

The existence of a slave and plantation society explains this difference, because slave societies expected the master to discipline his slaves for immoral and disorderly conduct.  

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