a general of brigade of artillery at St. Domingo, and was there
during the time of Santhonax and Toussaint. He was called to Paris by
Toussaint, when he arrived just at the moment of the peace of Amiens,
and found, to his inexpressible surprise and grief, that Bonaparte
was preparing an immense armament, to be commanded by Le Clerc, for
the purpose of _restoring slavery in St. Domingo!_ Against this
expedition, the General remonstrated with the First Consul, telling
him that, though the army destined for this purpose was composed of
the brilliant conquerors of Europe, it would do nothing in the
Antilles, and would assuredly be destroyed by the climate of St.
Domingo, if not destroyed by the blacks. He stated that every thing
was going on well in St. Domingo and therefore conjured him, in the
name of humanity, not to attempt to reverse this beautiful order of
things. His efforts were ineffectual. The armament sailed, and,
arriving on the shores of St. Domingo, a scene of blood and torture
followed, _such as history had seldom if ever before disclosed,_
which, though _planned and executed by whites,_ all the barbarities
said to have been perpetrated _by the insurgent blacks of the North_
amounted comparatively to nothing. At length, the survivors of that
vast army were driven from the island, with the loss of sixty
thousand lives. Till that time, the planters had retained their
estates; and then it was, and not till then, that they lost their
all. The question may be asked, why did the First Consul make this
frightful invasion? It was owing, not to the emancipated negroes, who
were _peaceful, industrious, and beyond example happy,_ but to the
prejudices of their former masters--prejudices common to almost all
slaveholders. Accustomed to the use of arbitrary power, they could
not brook the loss of their whips. Accustomed to look down on the
negroes as an inferior race of beings, as mere reptiles of the earth,
they could not bear, peaceably as these had conducted themselves, to
come into that familiar contact with them as free laborers, which the
change in their condition required. They considered them, too, as
property lost, and which was to be recovered. In an evil hour, they
prevailed on Bonaparte, by false representations and _promises of
pecuniary support,_ to undertake to restore things to their former
state; and the result is before the world as an example and a
warning. When will our slaveholding brethren learn that the advocates
of immediate emancipation are the only true friends of both
slaveholders and slaves, and that the only path of safety is the path
of duty, which demands the immediate repentance of all sin, and
especially that "sum of all villanies," slavery?
In the year 1800, the city of Richmond, Va., and indeed the whole
slaveholding country were thrown into a state of intense excitement,
consternation and alarm, by the discovery of an intended insurrection
among the slaves. The plot was laid by a slave named Gabriel, who was
claimed as the property of Mr. Thomas Prosser. A full and true
account of this General Gabriel, and of the proceedings consequent on
the discovery of the plot, has never yet been published. In 1831 a
short account, which is false in almost every particular, appeared in
the Albany _Evening Journal_ under the head of "Gabriel's Defeat." It
was the same year republished in the first volume of the _Liberator,_
and during the last year (1859) has been extensively republished in
many other papers. The following is the copy of a letter dated Sept.
21, 1800, written by a gentleman of Richmond, Va., and published in
the Boston _Gazette,_ Oct. 6th:--
"By this time, you have no doubt heard of the conspiracy, formed
in this country by the negroes, which, but for the interposition of
Providence, would have put the metropolis of the State, and even the
State itself, into their possession. A dreadful storm with a deluge
of rain, which carried away the bridges and rendered the water
courses every where impassable, prevented the execution of their
plot. _It was extensive and vast in its design. Nothing could have
been better contrived. The conspirators were to have seized on the
magazine, the treasury, the mills, and the bridges across James
river._ They were to have entered the city of Richmond in three
places with fire and sword, to commence an indiscriminate slaughter,
the French only excepted. They were then to have called on their
fellow negroes and the friends of humanity throughout the continent,
by proclamation, to rally round their standard. The magazine, which
was defenceless, would have supplied them with arms for many thousand
men. The treasury would have given them money, the mills bread, and
the bridges would have enabled them to let in their friends, and keep
out their enemies. Never was there a more propitious season for the
accomplishment of their purpose. The country is covered with rich
harvests of Indian corn; flocks and herds are every where fat in the
fields; and the liberty and equality doctrine, nonsensical and wicked
as it is, (in this land of tyrants and slaves,) is for electioneering
purposes sounding and resounding through our valleys and mountains in
every direction. The city of Richmond and the circumjacent country
are in arms, and have been so for ten or twelve days past. The
patrollers are doubled through the State, and the Governor, impressed
with the magnitude of the danger, has appointed for himself three
Aids de Camp. A number of conspirators have been hung, _and a great
many more are yet to be hung._ The trials and executions are going on
day by day. Poor deluded wretches! _Their democratic deluders,
conscious of their own guilt, and fearful of the public vengeance,
are most active in bringing them to punishment. "Quicquid delirant
reges, plectuntur Achivi"!_ Two important facts have been established
by the witnesses on the different trials. First, that the plan of the
plot was drawn by two Frenchmen in Richmond, and by them given to the
negro General Gabriel, who is not yet caught; and secondly, that in
the meditated massacre, _not one Frenchman_ was to be touched. It is
moreover believed, though not positively known, that a great many of
our profligate and abandoned whites (who are distinguished by the
burlesque appellation of _democrats_) are implicated with the blacks,
and would have joined them if they had commenced their operations. The
particulars of this horrid affair you will probably see detailed in
Davis' paper from Richmond, but certainly in Stewart's paper in
Washington. The Jacobin printers and their friends are panic struck.
Never was terror more strongly depicted in the countenances of men.
They see, they feel, the fatal mischiefs that their preposterous
principles and ferocious party spirit have brought upon us."
The Virginia _Gazette_ of Sept. 12th thus writes:--"The public mind
has been much involved in dangerous apprehensions concerning an
insurrection of the negroes in several of the adjoining counties.
Such a thing has been in agitation by an ambitious and insidious
fellow named Gabriel, the property of Mr. Thomas Prossor. * * * *
Yesterday a Court was held at the Court House in this city, when six
of them were convicted, and condemned to be executed this day, Sept.
12th."
"On Thursday, Sept. 18th," says the New York _Spectator,_ "five more
were executed near the city of Richmond, who were concerned in the
insurrection."
These eleven negroes were executed before the apprehension of Gen.
Gabriel, for whose arrest Gov. Monroe offered a reward of $300. The
following is a copy of a letter dated Norfolk, Sept. 25th, 1800:--
"Last Tuesday, on information being given that Gen. Gabriel was
on board the three-masted schooner Mary, Richardson Taylor skipper,
just arrived from Richmond, he was committed to prison in irons. It
appeared on his examination that he went on board on the 14th inst.,
four miles below Richmond, and remained on board eleven days; that
when he went first on board, he was armed with a bayonet and
bludgeon, both of which he threw into the river."
"On Saturday last," (Sept. 27th,) says a Richmond paper, "the noted
Gabriel arrived here by water, under guard from Norfolk, and was
committed to the Penitentiary for trial. We understand that when he
was apprehended, he manifested the greatest marks of firmness and
composure, showing not the least disposition to equivocate, or screen
himself from justice. He denied the charge of being the first in
exciting the insurrection, although he was to have had the chief
command, but that there were four or five persons more materially
concerned in the conspiracy, and said that he could mention several
in Norfolk; but being conscious of meeting with the fate of those
before him, he was determined to make no confession."
"It was stated," says a New York paper, "to be the best planned and
most matured of any before attempted." "Gabriel was condemned," says
another paper, "on the 3d of October, and executed on the 7th,
(having been respited from the 4th,) without making any _useful_
confession. On the 3d of October, ten more negroes were executed, and
on the 7th, fifteen more--viz.: five at the Brook, five at Four Mile
Creek, and four with Gabriel at the Richmond gallows."
These fifteen, as far as we have any account, were the last who were
either executed or tried. The Court, in their eager haste to
apprehend and punish the conspirators, of whom five, six, ten and
fifteen at a time were executed, and that only the day after trial,
of whom not one had committed any overt act, and against whom no
testimony appears to have been furnished by any white witness, found,
after the apprehension of General Gabriel, that they had made some
sad mistakes. This fact, with others, caused such a revulsion of
feeling, and excited so great a sympathy in behalf of the poor
creatures, that they were obliged, by a moral necessity, to pause in
their course.
Under date of Oct. 13th, the _Commercial Advertiser_ thus writes:--
"The trials of the negroes concerned in the late insurrection are
suspended until the opinion of the Legislature can be had on the
subject. _This measure is said to be owing to the immense numbers,
who are implicated in the plot, whose death, should they all be found
guilty and be executed, will nearly produce the annihilation of the
blacks in this part of the country."_
The next day, Oct. 14th, a correspondent from Richmond makes a
similar statement with this addition:--
"A conditional amnesty is perhaps expected. At the next session of
the Legislature of Virginia, they took into consideration the subject
referred to them, _in secret session, with closed doors._ The _whole_
result of their deliberations has never yet been made public, as the
injunction of secrecy has never been removed. To satisfy the Court,
the public, and themselves, they had a task so difficult to perform,
that it is not surprising that their deliberations were in secret."
From 1800 till 1816, nothing was divulged. In the spring of 1816,
the Hon. Charles Fenton Mercer, in a speech delivered by him in 1833,
says, "The intelligence broke in upon me, like a ray of light through
the profoundest gloom, and by a mere accident, which occurred in the
spring of 1816, that, upon two several occasions, the General
Assembly of Virginia had invited the United States to obtain a
territory beyond their limits, whereon to colonize _certain portions_
of our colored population. For the evidence of these facts, _then new
to me,_ I was referred to the Clerk of the Senate; and in the
_private records_ I found them verified."
On the 21st of December, 1800, the Virginia House of Delegates
passed, in _secret session,_ the following resolution:--
"Resolved, That the Governor [Monroe] be requested to correspond
with the President of the United States, on the subject of purchasing
land without the limits of this State, _whither persons obnoxious to
the laws, or dangerous to the peace of society, may be removed."_
The General Assembly of Virginia, having through their agent, Mr.
Jefferson, failed in 1800, 1802 and 1804, to obtain a place of
_banishment_ for that portion of their colored population whom they
were afraid to hang, and unwilling to pardon, passed on Jan. 22,
1805, still in _secret session,_ the following resolution:--
"Resolved, That the Senators of this State in the Congress of the
United States be instructed, and the Representatives be requested, to
exert their best efforts for the obtaining from the General
Government a competent portion of territory in the country of
Louisana, to be appropriated to the residence of _such people of
color as have been, or shall be, emancipated, or may hereafter become
dangerous to the public safety,"_ &c.--[See African Repository, June,
1832, and November, 1833.]
The Legislature of Virginia having failed in all their attempts to
find a suitable Botany Bay, to which the free people of color,
convicts, and other dangerous persons could be banished, passed in
1805 a law prohibiting emancipation, except on the condition that
the emancipated should leave the State; or, if remaining in the State
more than twelve months, should be sold by the overseers of the poor
for the benefit of the Literary Fund.
Here we see another consequence of the attempt of slaves to obtain
their freedom, viz., an increased persecution of the free people of
color, a law to prevent their increase, and a desire to banish all of
them from the State. The conspiracy of Gen. Gabriel and his
coadjutors was, therefore, the occasion, if not the cause, of the
formation, in 1817, of the Colonization Society, whose great object
was, by removing all disturbing causes, to make slavery secure,
lucrative, and perpetual. Another noticeable fact, made manifest by
the intended insurrection, is the state of fearful insecurity in
which the residents of a slaveholding community must feel that they
are living. The late assertion of Gov. Wise, that "We, the
Virginians, are in no danger from our slaves or the colored people,"--
or that of Senator Mason, "We can take care of ourselves,"--or that
of Miles, of South Carolina, "We are impregnable,"--betrays the depth
and extent of their fear by the very attempt to conceal it; like
timid boys "ejaculating through white lips and chattering teeth,"
_Who's afraid?_ In the wide-spread panic of 1800, the slaveholders
appear to have been excessively puzzled to ascertain what could have
induced their slaves to engage in such a conspiracy. They, of course,
could not have originated such a plot, and had been, in their
opinion, so well-treated that _they_ could have no motive to wish for
their freedom. It was at first rumored that Gabriel had in his
possession letters written by white men; then, that the conspiracy of
the negroes was "occasioned by the circulation of some artfully
written hand-bills, drawn up by the noted Callender in prison, and
circulated by two French people of color from Guadaloupe, aided by a
United Irish pretended Methodist preacher"; then, "that the
instigators of the diabolical plan wished thereby to insure the
elections of Adams and Pinckney, and that the blacks, as far as they
were capable, reasoned on the Jeffersonian principles of
emancipation." They were, at last, unwillingly compelled to believe
that the whole plot originated with slaves, and was confined to them
exclusively, and that, like all other human beings, deprived by
arbitrary power of all their just rights, they were determined to be
free.
In a letter written in 1800, by Judge St. George Tucker, of
Virginia, and published in Baltimore, he thus speaks:--
"The love of freedom is an inborn sentiment, which the God of
nature has planted deep in the heart. Long may it be kept under by
the arbitrary institutions of society; but, at the first favorable
moment, it springs forth with a power which defies all check. This
celestial spark, which fires the breast of the savage, which glows in
that of the philosopher, is not extinguished in the bosom of the
slave. It may be buried in the embers, but it _still lives,_ and the
breath of knowledge kindles it into a flame. Thus we find there never
have been slaves in any country, who have not seized the first
favorable opportunity to revolt. These, our hewers of wood and
drawers of water, possess the power of doing us mischief, and are
prompted to it by _motives which self-love dictates, which reason
justifies._ Our sole security, then, consists in their ignorance of
this power, and their means of using it--a security which we have
lately found is not to be relied on, and which, small as it is, every
day diminishes. Every year adds to the number of those who can read
and write; and _the increase of knowledge is the principal agent in
evolving the spirit we have to fear._ * * * By way of marking the
prodigious change which a few years have made among that class of
men, compare the late conspiracy with the revolt under Lord Dunmore.
In the one case, a few solitary individuals flocked to that standard,
under which they were sure to find protection. In the other, they, in
a body, of their own accord, combine a plan for asserting their
freedom, and rest their safety on success alone. The difference is,
that then they sought freedom merely as a good; now they also claim
it as a right. * * * Ignorant and illiterate as they yet are,
they have maintained a correspondence, which, whether we consider its
extent or duration, is truly astonishing."
Thus far Judge Tucker.
Monday, Sept. 1st, was the day set by General Gabriel and his
associates to make the attack on Richmond with fire and sword. The
plot was, however, discovered only the day previous, and, as I have
been informed, was made known by a slave named Ben, who was unwilling
that his master (a Mr. W. who had been very kind to him) should lose
his life.
The incidents of this conspiracy were embodied in a song, and set to
a tune, both of which were composed by a colored man. The song is
still sung.
In the New York _Spectator,_ of Sept. 24th, 1800, is a letter dated
CHARLESTON, S. C., Sept. 13th, which says that "the negroes have rose
in arms against the whites in this country, and have killed several.
All the troops of light horse are ordered out by the Governor to
suppress the insurrection. Some reports state the number of
insurgents, who were embodied about thirty miles from the city, to be
about four or five thousand strong. Others decreased this number to
seven or eight hundred."
In June, 1816, a conspiracy was formed in Camden, South Carolina;
but information of the intent was given by a favorite and
confidential slave of Col. Chestnut.
On May 30th, 1822, a "faithful and confidential slave" disclosed to
the Intendant of Charleston, S. C., that, on Sunday evening, June
16th, the slaves had determined to rise in rebellion against the
whites, "set fire to the Governor's house, seize the Guard-house and
Arsenal, and sweep the town with fire and sword, not permitting a
white soul to escape." Of the supposed conspirators, one hundred and
thirty-one were committed to prison, thirty-five executed, and thirty-
seven banished. Of the six ringleaders, Ned Bennet, Peter Poyas,
Rolla, Batteau, Jesse, and Denmark Vesey, all were slaves, except
Vesey, who had been a slave thirty-eight years, a few man twenty-two
years, having in 1800 purchased his freedom.
On July 12th, two slaves were executed; July 26th, twenty-two; July
30th, four; and August 9th, one.
In 1826, the inhabitants of Newbern, Targorough and Hillsborough
were alarmed by insurrectionary movements among their slaves. The
people of Newbern, being informed that forty slaves were assembled in
a swamp, surrounded it, and killed the whole party!!
In August, 1831, there was an insurrection of slaves in Southampton,
Virginia, headed by a slave, who called himself Gen. Nat. Turner, who
declared to his associates that he was acting under inspired
directions, and that the singular appearance of the sun at that time
was the signal for them to commence the work of destruction; which
resulted in the murder of sixty-four white persons, and more than one
hundred slaves were killed. The excitement extended throughout
Virginia and the Carolinas. "Another such insurrection," says the
Richmond Whig, "will be followed by _putting the whole race to the
sword."_ In the same year, insurrections occurred in Martinique,
Antigua, St. Jago, Caraccas, and Tortola.
In January, 1832, James McDowell, Jr., in reply to a member who
called the Nat. Turner insurrection a "petty affair," thus spoke in
the Virginia House of Delegates:--
"Now, sir, I ask you, I ask gentlemen, in conscience to say, was
that a 'petty affair' which startled the feelings of your whole
population; which threw a portion of it into alarm, a portion of it
into panic; which wrung out from an affrigthed people the thrilling
cry, day after day, conveyed to your executive, _'We are in peril of
our lives--send us an army for defence!'_ Was that a 'petty affair,'
which drove families from their homes; which assembled women and
children in crowds, without shelter, at places of common refuge, in
every condition of weakness and infirmity, under every suffering
which want and terror could inflict, yet willing to endure all,
willing to meet death from famine, death from climate, death from
hardships, preferring any thing rather than the horrors of meeting it
from a domestic assassin? Was that a 'petty affair,' which erected a
peaceful and confiding portion of the State into a military camp;
which _outlawed from pity the unfortunate beings whose brothers had
offended;_ which barred every door, penetrated every bosom with fear
or suspicion; which so banished every sense of security from every
man's dwelling, that, let but a hoof or horn break upon the silence
of the night, and an aching throb would be driven to the heart? The
husband would look to his weapon, and the mother would shudder, and
weep upon her cradle! Was it the fear of Nat. Turner and his deluded,
drunken handful of followers, which produced such effects? Was it
this that induced distant counties, where the very name of
Southampton was strange, to arm and equip for a struggle? No, sir, it
was the _suspicion eternally attached to the slave himself;_ the
suspicion that a Nat. Turner might be in every family--that the same
bloody deed might be acted over at any time, and in any place--that
the materials for it were spread through the land, and were always
ready for a like explosion. Nothing but the force of this withering
apprehension, nothing but the paralyzing and deadening weight with
which it falls upon and prostrates the heart of every man who has
helpless dependants to protect, nothing but this could have thrown a
brave people into consternation, or could have made any portion of
this powerful Commonwealth, for a single instant, to have quailed and
trembled."
In the same year and month, Henry Berry, Esq., another delegate,
thus spoke:--
"Sir, I believe that no cancer on the physical body was ever more
certain, steady and fatal in its progress, than this cancer on the
political body of Virginia. It is eating into her very vitals. And
shall we admit that the evil is past remedy? Shall we act the part of
a puny patient, suffering under the ravages of a fatal disease, who
would say the remedy is too painful? Pass as severe laws as you will
to keep these unfortunate creatures in ignorance, it is in vain,
unless you can extinguish that spark of intellect which God has given
them. Sir, we have, as far as possible, closed _every avenue by which
light might enter their minds._ We have only to go one step further--
to extinguish the capacity to see the light--and our work will be
completed. They would then be reduced to the level of the beasts of
the field, and we should be safe; and I am not certain that we would
not do it, if we could find out the necessary process, and that under
the plea of necessity. But, sir, this is impossible; and can man be
in the midst of freemen, and not know what freedom is? Can he feel
that he has the power to assert his liberty, and _will he not do it?_
Yes, sir, _with the certainty of Time's current, he will do it
whenever he has the power._ The data are before us all, and every
man can work out the process for himself. Sir, a _death-struggle must
come between the two classes, [FN#2] in which one or the other will
be extinguished forever._ Who can contemplate such a catastrophe as
even possible, and be indifferent?"
[FN#2] "Irrepressible Conflict."
In an essay written by Judge St. George Tucker, and published in
1796, he expresses similar sentiments, in language equally forcible,
and concludes by saying:--
"I presume it is possible that an effectual remedy for the evils
of slavery may at length be discovered. Whenever that happens, _the
golden age of our country will begin._ Till then,
----------"Non hospes a hospite tutus
Non Herus a Famulis, fratrum quoque gratia rara."
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his
justice cannot sleep forever," and "that the Almighty has no
attribute that can take sides with us in such a contest," viz., "an
exchange of situation" [with the slaves,] are the well-known words of
Jefferson.