DISCONTENT AND INSURRECTION.
An undeveloped discontent always pervaded the black population of the
South, bond and free. Human bondage is ever fruitful of insurrection,
wherever it exists, and under whatever circumstances it may be found.
The laws forbidding either free people of color or slaves to assemble
in any considerable numbers for religious, or any other purpose,
without two or more whites being present, and the rigorous enforcement
of such laws, show how fearful the slave-masters were of their injured
victims.
Everything was done to make the Negro feel that he was not a man, but
a thing; his inferiority was impressed upon him in all possible ways.
In the great cities of the South, free colored ladies were not allowed
to wear a veil in the streets, or in any public places. A violation of
this law was visited with thirty-nine lashes upon the bare back. The
same was inflicted upon the free colored man who should be seen upon
the streets with a cigar in his mouth, or a walking-stick in his hand.
Both, when walking the streets, were forbidden to take the inside of
the pavement. Punishment of fine and imprisonment was laid upon any
found out of their houses after nine o’clock at night.
An extra tax was placed upon every member of a free colored family.
While all these odious edicts were silently borne by the free colored
people of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1822, there was a suppressed
feeling of indignation, mortification, and discontent, that was only
appreciated by a few. Among the most dissatisfied of the free blacks
was Denmark Vesey, a man who had purchased his freedom in the year
1800, and since that time had earned his living by his trade, being a
carpenter and joiner.
In person, Vesey was tall and of spare make; in color, a dark mulatto;
high forehead; eyes, dark brown; nose, long and with a Roman cast. His
education was superior to that of his associates, and he had read much,
especially of the condition of his own race, and felt deeply for them
in their degraded condition.
Vesey was a native of the West Indies. Having been employed on
shipboard by his master, Captain Vesey, Denmark had seen a great
deal of the world, and had acquired a large fund of information, and
was regarded as a leading man among the blacks. He had studied the
Scriptures, and never lost an opportunity of showing that they were
opposed to chattel-slavery. He spoke freely with the slaves upon the
subject, and often with the whites, where he found he could do so
without risk to his own liberty.
After resolving to incite the slaves to rebellion, he began taking
into his confidence such persons as he could trust, and instructing
them to gain adherents from among the more reliable of both bond and
free. Peter Poyas, a slave of more than ordinary foresight and ability,
was selected by Vesey as his lieutenant; and to him was committed the
arduous duty of arranging the mode of attack, and of acting as the
military leader.
His plans showed some natural generalship; he arranged the night
attack; he planned the enrollment of a mounted troop to scour the
streets; and he had a list of all the shops where arms and ammunition
were kept for sale. He voluntarily undertook the management of the
most difficult part of the enterprise,--the capture of the main
guard-house,--and had pledged himself to advance alone, and surprise
the sentinel. He was said to have a magnetism in his eye, of which his
confederates stood in great awe; if he once got his eye upon a man,
there was no resisting it.
Gullah Jack, Tom Russell, and Ned Bennett. The last two were not less
valuable than Peter Poyas; for Tom was an ingenious mechanic, and made
battle-axes, pikes, and other instruments of death, with which to carry
on the war. All of the above were to be generals of brigades, and were
let into all the secrets of the intended rising. It has long been
the custom in Charleston for the country slaves to visit the city in
great numbers on Sunday, and return to their homes in time to commence
work on the following morning. It was therefore determined by Denmark
to have the rising take place on Sunday. The slaves of nearly every
plantation in the vicinity were enlisted, and were to take part.
The details of the plan, however, were not rashly committed to the
mass of the confederates; they were known only to a few, and were
finally to have been announced after the evening prayer-meeting on
the appointed Sunday. But each leader had his own company enlisted,
and his own work marked out. When the clock struck twelve, all were
to move. Peter Poyas was to lead a party ordered to assemble at South
Bay, and to be joined by a force from James’ Island; he was then to
march up and seize the arsenal and guard-house opposite St. Michael’s
Church, and detach a sufficient number to cut off all white citizens
who should appear at the alarm posts. A second body of negroes, from
the country and the Neck, headed by Ned Bennett, was to assemble on
the Neck and seize the arsenal there. A third was to meet at Governor
Bennett’s Mills, under command of Rolla, another leader, and, after
putting the governor and intendant to death, to march through the
city, or be posted at Cannon’s Bridge, thus preventing the inhabitants
of Cannonsborough from entering the city. A fourth, partly from the
country and partly from the neighboring localities in the city, was to
rendezvous on Gadsden’s Wharf, and attack the upper guard-house.
A fifth, composed of country and Neck negroes, was to assemble at
Bulkley’s farm, two miles and a half from the city, seize the upper
powder magazine, and then march down; and a sixth was to assemble at
Denmark Vesey’s, and obey his orders. A seventh detachment, under
Gullah Jack, was to assemble in Boundary Street, at the head of King
Street, to capture the arms of the Neck company of militia, and to
take an additional supply from Mr. Duquercron’s shop. The naval stores
on Mey’s Wharf were also to be attacked. Meanwhile a horse company,
consisting of many draymen, hostlers, and butcher boys, was to meet at
Lightwood’s Alley, and then scour the streets to prevent the whites
from assembling. Every white man coming out of his own door was to
be killed, and, if necessary, the city was to be fired in several
places--slow match for this purpose having been purloined from the
public arsenal and placed in an accessible position.
The secret and plan of attack, however, were incautiously divulged
to a slave named Devany, belonging to Colonel Prioleau, and he at
once informed his master’s family. The mayor, on getting possession
of the facts, called the city council together for consultation. The
investigation elicited nothing new, for the slaves persisted in their
ignorance of the matter, and the authorities began to feel that they
had been imposed upon by Devany and his informant, when another of
the conspirators, being bribed, revealed what he knew. Arrests after
arrests were made, and the Mayor’s Court held daily examinations for
weeks. After several weeks of incarceration, the accused, one hundred
and twenty in number, were brought to trial: thirty-four were sentenced
to transportation, twenty-seven acquitted by the court, twenty-five
discharged without trial, and thirty-five condemned to death. With but
two or three exceptions, all of the conspirators went to the gallows
feeling that they had acted right, and died like men giving their lives
for the cause of freedom. A report of the trial, written soon after,
says of Denmark Vesey:--
“For several years before he disclosed his intentions to any one, he
appears to have been constantly and assiduously engaged in endeavoring
to embitter the minds of the colored population against the white.
He rendered himself perfectly familiar with all those parts of the
Scriptures which he thought he could pervert to his purpose, and would
readily quote them to prove that slavery was contrary to the laws of
God,--that slaves were bound to attempt their emancipation, however
shocking and bloody might be the consequences,--and that such efforts
would not only be pleasing to the Almighty, but were absolutely
enjoined, and their success predicted, in the Scriptures. His favorite
texts, when he addressed those of his own color, were Zachariah xiv:
1-3, and Joshua vi: 21; and in all his conversations he identified
their situation with that of the Israelites.
The number of inflammatory pamphlets on slavery brought into Charleston
from some of our sister states within the last four years (and once
from Sierra Leone), and distributed amongst the colored population of
the city, for which there was a great facility, in consequence of the
unrestricted intercourse allowed to the persons of color between the
different states in the Union, and the speeches in Congress of those
opposed to the admission of Missouri into the Union, perhaps garbled
and misrepresented, furnished him with ample means for inflaming the
minds of the colored population of this State; and by distorting
certain parts of those speeches, or selecting from them particular
passages, he persuaded but too many that Congress had actually declared
them free, and that they were held in bondage contrary to the laws of
the land.
Even whilst walking through the streets in company with another, he
was not idle; for if his companion bowed to a white person, he would
rebuke him, and observe that all men were born equal, and that he was
surprised that any one would degrade himself by such conduct,--that
he would never cringe to the whites, nor ought any one who had
the feelings of a man. When answered, ‘We are slaves,’ he would
sarcastically and indignantly reply, ‘You deserve to remain slaves;’
and if he were further asked, ‘What can we do?’ he would remark,
‘Go and buy a spelling-book and read the fable of Hercules and the
Wagoner,’ which he would then repeat, and apply it to their situation.
He also sought every opportunity of entering into conversation with
white persons, when they could be overheard by negroes near by,
especially in grog shops; during which conversation, he would artfully
introduce some bold remark on slavery; and sometimes, when, from the
character he was conversing with, he found he might be still bolder, he
would go so far, that, had not his declarations in such situations been
clearly proved, they would scarcely have been credited. He continued
this course until some time after the commencement of the last winter;
by which time he had not only obtained incredible influence amongst
persons of color, but many feared him more than their owners, and, one
of them declared, even more than his God.”
The excitement which the revelations of the trial occasioned, and
the continual fanning of the flame by the newspapers, were beyond
description. Double guard in the city, the country patrol on
horseback and on foot, the watchfulness that was observed on all
plantations, showed the deep feeling of fear pervading the hearts of
the slaveholders, not only in South Carolina, but the fever extended
to the other Southern states, and all seemed to feel that a great
crisis had been passed. And indeed, their fears seem not to have been
without ground, for a more complicated plan for an insurrection could
scarcely have been conceived. And many were of opinion that the rising
once begun, they would have taken the city and held it, and might have
sealed the fate of slavery in the South.[51] But a more successful
effort in rebellion was made in Southampton, Virginia, in the year
1831, at the head of which was Nat Turner.
On one of the oldest and largest plantations in Southampton County,
Virginia, owned by Benjamin Turner, Esq., Nat was born a slave, on
the 2d of October, 1800. His parents were of unmixed African descent.
Surrounded as he was by the superstition of the slave quarters, and
being taught by his mother that he was born for a prophet, a preacher,
and a deliverer of his race, it is not strange that the child should
have imbibed the principles which were afterwards developed in his
career. Early impressed with the belief that he had seen visions, and
received communications direct from God, he, like Napoleon, regarded
himself as a being of destiny. In his childhood Nat was of an amiable
disposition; but circumstances in which he was placed as a slave,
brought out incidents that created a change in his disposition, and
turned his kind and docile feeling into the most intense hatred to the
white race.
Being absent one night from his master’s plantation without a pass,
he was caught by Whitlock and Mull, the two district patrolers, and
severely flogged. This act of cruelty inflamed the young slave, and he
resolved upon having revenge. Getting two of the boys of a neighboring
plantation to join him, Nat obtained a long rope, went out at night
on the road through which the officers had their beat, and stationing
his companions, one on each side of the road, he stretched the rope
across, fastening each end to a tree, and drawing it tight. His rope
thus fixed, and his accomplices instructed how to act their part, Nat
started off up the road. The night being dark, and the rope only six or
eight inches from the ground, the slave felt sure that he would give
his enemies a “high fall.”
Nat hearing them, he called out in a disguised voice, “Is dat you,
Jim?” To this Whitlock replied, “Yes, dis is me.” Waiting until the
white men were near him, Nat started off upon a run, followed by the
officers. The boy had placed a sheet of white paper in the road, so
that he might know at what point to jump the rope, so as not to be
caught in his own trap. Arriving at the signal he sprung over the
rope, and went down the road like an antelope. But not so with the
white men, for both were caught by the legs and thrown so hard upon
the ground that Mull had his shoulder put out of joint, and his face
terribly lacerated by the fall; while Whitlock’s left wrist was
broken, and his head bruised in a shocking manner. Nat hastened home,
while his companions did the same, not forgetting to take with them
the clothesline which had been so serviceable in the conflict. The
patrolers were left on the field of battle, crying, swearing, and
calling for help.
Snow seldom falls as far south as the southern part of Virginia; but
when it does, the boys usually have a good time snow-balling, and on
such occasions the slaves, old and young, women and men, are generally
pelted without mercy, and with no right to retaliate. It was only a
few months after his affair with the patrolers, that Nat was attacked
by a gang of boys, who chased him some distance, snow-balling with all
their power. The slave boy knew the lads, and determined upon revenge.
Waiting till night, he filled his pockets with rocks, and went into
the street. Very soon the same gang of boys were at his heels, and
pelting him. Concealing his face so as not to be known, Nat discharged
his rocks in every direction, until his enemies had all taken to their
heels.
The ill treatment he experienced at the hands of the whites, and the
visions he claimed to have seen, caused Nat to avoid, as far as he
could, all intercourse with his fellow-slaves, and threw around him a
gloom and melancholy that disappeared only with his life.
Both the young slave and his friends averred that a full knowledge of
the alphabet came to him in a single night. Impressed with the belief
that his mission was a religious one, and this impression strengthened
by the advice of his grandmother, a pious but ignorant woman, Nat
commenced preaching when about twenty-five years of age, but never
went beyond his own master’s locality. In stature he was under the
middle size, long-armed, round-shouldered, and strongly marked with
the African features. A gloomy fire burned in his looks, and he had a
melancholy expression of countenance. He never tasted a drop of ardent
spirits in his life, and was never known to smile. In the year 1828 new
visions appeared to Nat, and he claimed to have direct communication
with God. Unlike most of those born under the influence of slavery, he
had no faith in conjuring, fortune-telling, or dreams, and always spoke
with contempt of such things.
Being hired out to cruel masters, he ran away and remained in the woods
thirty days, and could have easily escaped to the free states, as
did his father some years before; but he received, as he says in his
confession a communication from the spirit, which said, “Return to your
earthly master, for he who knoweth his Master’s will, and doeth it not,
shall be beaten with many stripes.” It was not the will of his earthly,
but his heavenly Master that he felt bound to do, and therefore Nat
returned. His fellow-slaves were greatly incensed at him for coming
back, for they knew well his ability to reach Canada, or some other
land of freedom, if he was so inclined.
He says further: “About this time I had a vision, and saw white spirits
and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened, the
thunder rolled in the heavens, and blood flowed in streams; and I heard
a voice saying, ‘Such is your luck; such are you called on to see; and
let it come, rough or smooth, you must surely bear it.’”
Some time after this, Nat had, as he says, another vision, in which
the spirit appeared and said, “The serpent is loosened, and Christ has
laid down the yoke he has borne for the sins of men, and you must take
it up, and fight against the serpent, for the time is fast approaching
when the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” There is no
doubt but that this last sentence filled Nat with enthusiastic feeling
in favor of the liberty of his race, that he had so long dreamed of.
“The last shall be first, and the first shall be last,” seemed to him
to mean something. He saw in it the overthrow of the whites, and the
establishing of the blacks in their stead, and to this end he bent
the energies of his mind. In February, 1831, Nat received his last
communication, and beheld his last vision. He said, “I was told I
should arise and prepare myself, and slay my enemies with their own
weapons.”
The plan of an insurrection was now formed in his own mind, and the
time had arrived for him to take others into the secret; and he at once
communicated his ideas to four of his friends, in whom he had implicit
confidence. Hark Travis, Nelson Williams, Sam Edwards, and Henry Porter
were slaves like himself, and like him had taken their names from their
masters. A meeting must be held with these, and it must take place in
some secluded place, where the whites would not disturb them; and a
meeting was appointed. The spot where they assembled was as wild and
romantic as were the visions that had been impressed upon the mind of
their leader.
Three miles from where Nat lived was a dark swamp filled with reptiles,
in the middle of which was a dry spot, reached by a narrow, winding
path, and upon which human feet seldom trod, on account of its having
been the place where a slave had been tortured to death by a slow fire,
for the crime of having flogged his cruel and inhuman master. The
night for the meeting arrived, and they came together. Hark brought a
pig; Sam, bread; Nelson, sweet potatoes, and Henry, brandy; and the
gathering was turned into a feast. Others were taken in, and joined
the conspiracy. All partook heartily of the food and drank freely,
except Nat. He fasted and prayed. It was agreed that the revolt should
commence that night, and in their own master’s households, and that
each slave should give his oppressor the death-blow. Before they left
the swamp Nat made a speech, in which he said, “Friends and brothers:
We are to commence a great work to-night. Our race is to be delivered
from slavery, and God has appointed us as the men to do his bidding,
and let us be worthy of our calling. I am told to slay all the whites
we encounter, without regard to age or sex. We have no arms or
ammunition, but we will find these in the houses of our oppressors,
and as we go on, others can join us. Remember that we do not go forth
for the sake of blood and carnage, but it is necessary that in the
commencement of this revolution all the whites we meet should die,
until we shall have an army strong enough to carry on the war upon a
Christian basis. Remember that ours is not a war for robbery and to
satisfy our passions; it is a struggle for freedom. Ours must be deeds,
and not words. Then let’s away to the scene of action.”
Among those who had joined the conspirators was Will, a slave, who
scorned the idea of taking his master’s name. Though his soul longed
to be free, he evidently became one of the party, as much to satisfy
revenge, as for the liberty that he saw in the dim distance. Will had
seen a dear and beloved wife sold to the negro-trader and taken away,
never to be beheld by him again in this life. His own back was covered
with scars, from his shoulders to his feet. A large scar, running from
his right eye down to his chin, showed that he had lived with a cruel
master. Nearly six feet in height, and one of the strongest and most
athletic of his race, he proved to be the most unfeeling of all the
insurrectionists. His only weapon was a broad-axe, sharp and heavy.
Nat and his accomplices at once started for the plantation of Joseph
Travis, with whom the four lived, and there the first blow was struck.
In his confession, just before his execution, Nat said:--
“On returning to the house, Hark went to the door with an axe, for the
purpose of breaking it open, as we knew we were strong enough to murder
the family should they be awakened by the noise; but reflecting that
it might create an alarm in the neighborhood, we determined to enter
the house secretly, and murder them whilst sleeping. Hark got a ladder
and set it against the chimney, on which I ascended, and hoisting a
window, entered, and came down-stairs, unbarred the doors, and removed
the guns from their places. It was then observed that I must spill
the first blood. On which, armed with a hatchet, and accompanied by
Will, I entered my master’s chamber. It being dark, I could not give
a death-blow. The hatchet glanced from his head; he sprang from the
bed and called his wife. It was his last word; Will laid him dead with
a blow of his axe, and Mrs. Travis shared the same fate as she lay
in bed. The murder of this family, five in number, was the work of a
moment; not one of them awoke. There was a little infant sleeping in a
cradle, that was forgotten until we had left the house and gone some
distance, when Henry and Will returned and killed it. We got here four
guns that would shoot, and several old muskets, with a pound or two
of powder. We remained for some time at the barn, where we paraded;
I formed them in line as soldiers, and after carrying them through
all the manœuvres I was master of, marched them off to Mr. Salathiel
Francis’s, about six hundred yards distant.
“Sam and Will went to the door and knocked. Mr. Francis asked who was
there; Sam replied it was he and he had a letter for him; on this he
got up and came to the door; they immediately seized him, and dragging
him out a little from the door, he was despatched by repeated blows on
the head. There was no other white person in the family. We started
from there to Mrs. Reese’s, maintaining the most perfect silence on our
march, where, finding the door unlocked, we entered and murdered Mrs.
Reese in her bed while sleeping; her son awoke, but only to sleep the
sleep of death; he had only time to say, ‘Who is that?’ and he was no
more.
“From Mrs. Reese’s we went to Mrs. Turner’s, a mile distant, which we
reached about sunrise, on Monday morning. Henry, Austin, and Sam, went
to the still, where, finding Mr. Peebles, Austin shot him; the rest of
us went to the house. As we approached, the family discovered us and
shut the door. Vain hope! Will, with one stroke of his axe, opened it,
and we entered, and found Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Newsome in the middle
of the room, almost frightened to death. Will immediately killed Mrs.
Turner with one blow of his axe. I took Mrs. Newsome by the hand, and
with the sword I had when apprehended, I struck her several blows over
the head, but was not able to kill her, as the sword was dull. Will,
turning round and discovering it, despatched her also. A general
destruction of property, and search for money and ammunition, always
succeeded the murders.
“By this time, my company amounted to fifteen, nine men mounted, who
started for Mrs. Whitehead’s, (the other six were to go through a
by-way to Mr. Bryant’s, and rejoin us at Mrs. Whitehead’s).
“As we approached the house, we discovered Mr. Richard Whitehead
standing in the cotton patch, near the lane fence; we called him over
into the lane, and Will, the executioner, was near at hand, with his
fatal axe, to send him to an untimely grave. As we pushed on to the
house, I discovered some one running around the garden, and thinking it
was some of the white family, I pursued; but finding it was a servant
girl belonging to the house, I returned to commence the work of death;
but they whom I left had not been idle; all the family were already
murdered but Mrs. Whitehead and her daughter Margaret. As I came round
to the door, I saw Will pulling Mrs. Whitehead out of the house, and at
the step he nearly severed her head from her body with his broadaxe.
Miss Margaret, when I discovered her, had concealed herself in the
corner formed by the projection of the cellar cap from the house; on
my approach she fled, but was soon overtaken, and after repeated blows
with a sword, I killed her with a blow over the head with a fence rail.
By this time the six who had gone by Mr. Bryant’s rejoined us, and
informed me they had done the work of death assigned them.
“We again divided, part going to Mr. Richard Porter’s, and from thence
to Nathaniel Francis’s, the others to Mr. Howell Harris’s and Mr.
T. Doyles’s. On my reaching Mr. Porter’s, he had escaped with his
family. I understood there that the alarm had already spread, and I
immediately returned to bring up those sent to Mr. Doyles’s and Mr.
Howell Harris’s; the party I left going on to Mr. Francis’s, having
told them I would join them in that neighborhood. I met those sent to
Mr. Doyles’s and Mr. Howell Harris’s returning, having met Mr. Doyles
on the road and killed him.
“Learning from some who joined them that Mr. Harris was from home, I
immediately pursued the course taken by the party gone on before; but
knowing that they would complete the work of death and pillage at Mr.
Francis’s before I could get there, I went to Mr. Peter Edwards’s,
expecting to find them there; but they had been there already. I then
went to Mr. John T. Barrows’s; they had been there and murdered him. I
pursued on their track to Captain Newitt Harris’s. I found the greater
part mounted and ready to start; the men, now amounting to about forty,
shouted and hurrahed as I rode up; some were in the yard loading their
guns, others drinking. They said Captain Harris and his family had
escaped; the property in the house they destroyed, robbing him of money
and other valuables.
“I ordered them to mount and march instantly; this was about nine or
ten o’clock, Monday morning. I proceeded to Mr. Levi Waller’s, two
or three miles distant. I took my station in the rear, and as it was
my object to carry terror and devastation wherever we went, I placed
fifteen or twenty of the best mounted and most to be relied on in
front, who generally approached the houses as fast as their horses
could run. This was for two purposes; to prevent their escape, and
strike terror to the inhabitants. On this account I never got to
the houses, after leaving Mrs. Whitehead’s, until the murders were
committed, except in one case. I sometimes got in sight in time to see
the work of death completed, view the mangled bodies as they lay, in
silent satisfaction, and immediately start in quest of other victims.
Having murdered Mrs. Waller and ten children, we started for Mr.
William Williams’s. We killed him and two little boys that were there:
while engaged in this, Mrs. Williams fled, and got some distance from
the house; but she was pursued, overtaken, and compelled to get up
behind one of the company, who brought her back, and after showing her
the mangled body of her lifeless husband, she was told to get down and
lie by his side, where she was shot dead.
“I then started for Mr. Jacob Williams’s, where the family were
murdered. Here we found a young man named Drury, who had come on
business with Mr. Williams; he was pursued, overtaken, and shot. Mrs.
Vaughan’s was the next place we visited; and after murdering the family
here, I determined on starting for Jerusalem. Our number amounted now
to fifty or sixty, all mounted and armed with guns, axes, swords, and
clubs. On reaching Mr. James W. Parker’s gate, immediately on the road
leading to Jerusalem, and about three miles distant, it was proposed to
me to call there; but I objected, as I knew he was gone to Jerusalem,
and my object was to reach there as soon as possible; but some of the
men having relations at Mr. Parker’s, it was agreed that they might
call and get his people.
“I remained at the gate on the road, with seven or eight, the others
going across the field to the house, about half a mile off. After
waiting some time for them, I became impatient, and started to the
house for them, and on our return we were met by a party of white men,
who had pursued our blood-stained track, and who had fired on those
at the gate, and dispersed them, which I knew nothing of, not having
been at that time rejoined by any of them. Immediately on discovering
the whites, I ordered my men to halt and form, as they appeared to be
alarmed. The white men, eighteen in number, approached us within about
one hundred yards, when one of them fired, and I discovered about half
of them retreating. I then ordered my men to fire and rush on them;
the few remaining stood their ground until we approached within fifty
yards, when they fired and retreated.
“We pursued and overtook some of them, whom we thought we left dead;
after pursuing them about two hundred yards, and rising a little hill,
I discovered they were met by another party, and had halted, and were
reloading their guns, thinking that those who retreated first, and the
party who fired on us at fifty or sixty yards distant, had only fallen
back to meet others with ammunition. As I saw them reloading their
guns, and more coming up than I saw at first, and several of my bravest
men being wounded, the others became panic-stricken, and scattered
over the field; the white men pursued and fired on us several times.
Hark had his horse shot under him, and I caught another for him that
was running by me; five or six of my men were wounded, but none left
on the field. Finding myself defeated here, I instantly determined to
go through a private way, and cross the Nottoway River at the Cypress
Bridge, three miles below Jerusalem, and attack that place in the rear,
as I expected they would look for me on the other road, and I had a
great desire to get there to procure arms and ammunition.”
Reënforcements came to the whites, and the blacks were overpowered and
defeated by the superior numbers of their enemy. In this battle many
were slain on both sides. Will, the bloodthirsty and revengeful slave,
fell with his broad-axe uplifted, after having laid three of the whites
dead at his feet with his own strong arm and his terrible weapon. His
last words were, “Bury my axe with me;” for he religiously believed
that in the next world the blacks would have a contest with the whites,
and that he would need his axe. Nat Turner, after fighting to the last
with his short-sword, escaped with some others to the woods near by,
and was not captured for nearly two months. He had aroused the entire
country by his deeds, and for sixty days had eluded a thousand armed
men on his track. When taken, although half starved, and exhausted by
fatigue, like a fox after a weary chase, he stood erect and dignified,
proud and haughty, amid his captors, his sturdy, compact form, marked
features, and flashing eye, declaring him to be every inch a man.
When brought to trial, he pleaded “not guilty;” feeling, as he said,
that it was always right for one to strike for his own liberty. After
going through a mere form of trial, he was convicted and executed at
Jerusalem, the county seat for Southampton County, Virginia. Not a
limb trembled nor a muscle was observed to move. Thus died Nat Turner,
at the early age of thirty-one years--a martyr to the freedom of
his race, and a victim to his own fanaticism. He meditated upon the
wrongs of his oppressed and injured people, till the idea of their
deliverance excluded all other ideas from his mind, and he devoted his
life to its realization. Everything appeared to him a vision, and all
favorable omens were signs from God. That he was sincere in all that he
professed, there is not the slightest doubt. After being defeated, he
might have escaped to the free states, but the hope of raising a new
band kept him from doing so.
He impressed his image upon the minds of those who once beheld him.
His looks, his sermons, his acts, and his heroism live in the hearts
of his race, on every cotton, sugar, and rice plantation at the South.
The present generation of slaves have a superstitious veneration for
his name. He foretold that at his death the sun would refuse to shine,
and that there would be signs of disapprobation given from Heaven.
And it is true that the sun was darkened, a storm gathered, and more
boisterous weather had never appeared in Southampton County than on the
day of Nat’s execution. The sheriff, warned by the prisoner, refused to
cut the cord that held the trap. No black man would touch the rope. A
poor old white man, long besotted by drink, was brought forty miles to
be the executioner. And even the planters, with all their prejudice and
hatred, believed him honest and sincere; for Mr. Gray, who had known
Nat from boyhood, and to whom he made his confession, says of him:--
“It has been said that he was ignorant and cowardly, and that his
object was to murder and rob, for the purpose of obtaining money to
make his escape. It is notorious that he was never known to have a
dollar in his life, to swear an oath, or drink a drop of spirits. As to
his ignorance, he certainly never had the advantages of education; but
he can read and write, and for natural intelligence and quickness of
apprehension, is surpassed by few men I have ever seen. As to his being
a coward, his reason, as given, for not resisting Mr. Phipps, shows
the decision of his character. When he saw Mr. Phipps present his gun,
he said he knew it was impossible for him to escape, as the woods were
full of men; he therefore thought it was better for him to surrender,
and trust to fortune for his escape.
“He is a complete fanatic, or plays his part most admirably. On other
subjects he possesses an uncommon share of intelligence, with a
mind capable of attaining anything, but warped and perverted by the
influence of early impressions. He is below the ordinary stature,
though strong and active, having the true negro face, every feature of
which is strongly marked. I shall not attempt to describe the effect of
his narrative, as told and commented on by himself, in the condemned
hole of the prison; the calm, deliberate composure with which he spoke
of his late deeds and intentions; the expression of his fiend-like
face, when excited by enthusiasm--still bearing the stains of the blood
of helpless innocence about him, clothed with rags and covered with
chains, yet daring to raise his manacled hands to Heaven, with a spirit
soaring above the attributes of man; I looked on him, and the blood
curdled in my veins.”
Fifty-five whites and seventy-three blacks lost their lives in the
Southampton rebellion. On the fatal night when Nat and his companions
were dealing death to all they found, Captain Harris, a wealthy
planter had his life saved by the devotion and timely warning of his
slave Jim, said to have been half-brother to his master. After the
revolt had been put down, and parties of whites were out hunting the
suspected blacks, Captain Harris, with his faithful slave, went into
the woods in search of the negroes. In saving his master’s life, Jim
felt that he had done his duty, and could not consent to become a
betrayer of his race; and on reaching the woods, he handed his pistol
to his master, and said, “I cannot help you hunt down these men; they,
like myself, want to be free. Sir, I am tired of the life of a slave;
please give me my freedom, or shoot me on the spot.” Captain Harris
took the weapon and pointed it at the slave. Jim, putting his right
hand upon his heart, said, “This is the spot; aim here.” The captain
fired, and the slave fell dead at his feet.
FOOTNOTE:
[51] T. W. Higginson, in Atlantic Monthly, June, 1861.