On 23 August 1831Governor
John Floyd received a hastily written note from Southampton County postmaster
James Trezevant stating "that an insurrection of the slaves in that
county had taken place, that several families had been massacred and that
it would take a considerable military force to put them down."
Fifty-seven whites, many of them women and children, died before a massive
force of militiamen and armed volunteers could converge on the region
and crush the insurrection. Angry white vigilantes killed dozens
of slaves and drove hundreds of free persons of color into exile in the
reign of terror that followed.
Early newspaper reports
identified the Southampton insurgents as a leaderless mob of runaway slaves
that rose out of the Dismal Swamp to wreak havoc on unsuspecting white
families. Military leaders and others on the scene soon confirmed that
the insurgents were not runaways but, rather, slaves from local plantations.
Reports of as many as 450 black insurgents gave way to revised estimates
of perhaps 60 armed men and boys, many of them coerced into joining.
The confessions of prisoners and the interrogation of eyewitnesses pointed
to a small group of ringleaders: a free man of color named Billy Artis,
a celebrated slave known as "Gen. Nelson," and a slave preacher
by the name of Nat Turner. Attention focused on Turner; it was his
"imagined spirit of prophecy" and his extraordinary powers of
persuasion, local authorities reported, that had turned obedient slaves
into bloodthirsty killers. Turner's ability to elude capture for
more than two months only enhanced his mythic stature.
While Nat Turner
remained at large, rumors of a wider slave conspiracy flourished.
An abolitionist writer named Samuel Warner suggested that Turner had hidden
himself in the Dismal Swamp with an army of runaways at his disposal.
State officials took pains to ensure that Turner lived to stand trial
by offering a $500 reward for his capture and safe return to the Southampton
County jail. On 30 October 1831, Turner surrendered to a local farmer
who found him hiding in a cave not far from the place where Turner lived.
Local planter and lawyer Thomas R. Gray interviewed Turner in his jail
cell, recorded his "Confessions," and published them as a pamphlet
shortly after Turner was tried, convicted, and executed. In tracing
the "history of the motives" that led him to undertake the insurrection,
Turner insisted that God had given him a sign to act, that he had shared
his plans with only a few trusted followers, and that he knew nothing
of any wider conspiracy extending beyond the Southampton County area.
Certified as authentic by six local magistrates and said to be authorized
by Turner himself, the "Confessions" became the definitive source
for nearly all subsequent accounts of the event.
Nat Turner's revolt prompted a prolonged debate in the Virginia General Assembly of 1831Ð1832. While many statesmen adhered to the Jeffersonian idea that the ending of slavery was desirable, no coherent plan for eventual abolition emerged. In fact, Virginia's sponsorship of colonization to Africa, a popular solution to the problem, in reality became simply a way to remove free blacks, who were thought to be a bad influence on slaves. Instead of advocating freedom for slaves, some prominent Virginians developed a positive argument for slavery's good based on their readings of the Bible and classical history. As a result of Turner's actions, Virginia's legislators enacted more laws to limit the activities of African Americans, both free and enslaved. The freedom of slaves to communicate and congregate was directly attacked. No one could assemble a group of African Americans to teach reading or writing, nor could anyone be paid to teach a slave. Preaching by slaves and free blacks was forbidden.
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Copyrighted
2001, United States
of America
Anita Gonzalez & Ian Granick