State militias primarily functioned to crush enslaved people’s revolts.

Evidence

For them, the state militias had a very specific purpose. They were key to crushing revolts by enslaved people and buttressing enforcement of the slave codes, laws that maintained the racial hierarchy by banning Black people’s access to firearms, literacy, and unfettered movement. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 788

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the slave codes’ specific content (firearms, literacy, movement bans) as the hierarchy-maintenance mechanism militias enforced.