The first slave catchers in the Americas were active in European colonies in the West Indies during the sixteenth century. In colonial Virginia and Carolina, slave catchers (as part of the slave patrol system) were recruited by Southern planters beginning in the eighteenth century to return fugitive slaves; the concept quickly spread to the rest of the Thirteen Colonies.
In the sixteenth century, early slave catchers operated within European colonies in the West Indies. In colonial Virginia and Carolina, slave hunters (as part of a patrol system) were hired by Southern plantation owners starting in the eighteenth century to recover runaway slaves; this practice spread throughout all Thirteen Colonies.