Black Rebellion: Five Slave Revolts Part 5

While these things were going on, the enthusiasm for the Polish Revolution was rising to its height. The nation was ringing with a peal of joy, on hearing that at Frankfort the Poles had killed fourteen thousand Russians. The _Southern Religious Telegraph_ was publishing an impa.s.sioned address to Kosciuszko; standards were being consecrated for Poland in the larger cities; heroes like Skrzynecki, Czartoryski, Rozyski, Raminski, were choking the trump of Fame with their complicated patronymics. These are all forgotten now; and this poor negro, who did not even possess a name, beyond one abrupt monosyllable,--for even the name of Turner was the master's property,--still lives, a memory of terror, and a symbol of wild retribution.

APPENDIX OF AUTHORITIES

THE MAROONS OF JAMAICA

1. Dallas, R. C. "The History of the Maroons, from their origin to the establishment of their chief tribe at Sierra Leone: including the expedition to Cuba, for the purpose of procuring Spanish cha.s.seurs; and the state of the Island of Jamaica for the last ten years, with a succinct history of the island previous to that period." In two volumes.

London, 1803. [8vo.]

2. Edwards, Bryan. "The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies. To which is added a general description of the Bahama Islands, by Daniel M'Kinnen, Esq." In four volumes.

Philadelphia, 1806. [8vo.]

3. Edwards, Bryan. "Proceedings of the Governor and a.s.sociates of Jamaica in regard to the Maroon Negroes, with an account of the Maroons." London, 1796. 8vo.

4. Edwards, Bryan. "Historical Survey of St. Domingo, with an account of the Maroon Negroes, a history of the war in the West Indies, 1793-94"

[etc.]. London, 1801. 4to.

5. _Edinburgh Review_, ii. 376. [Review of Dallas and Edwards, by Henry Lord Brougham.]

Also Annual Register, Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, etc.

[There appeared in _Once a Week_ (1865) a paper ent.i.tled "The Maroons of Jamaica," and reprinted in _Every Sat.u.r.day_ (i. 50, Jan. 31, 1866), in which Gov. Eyre is quoted as having said, in the London _Times_, "To the fidelity and loyalty of the Maroons it is due that the negroes did not commit greater devastation" in the recent insurrection; thus curiously repeating the encomium given by Lord Balcarres seventy years before.]

THE MAROONS OF SURINAM

1. "Narrative of a Five Years' Expedition against the revolted negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the wild coast of South America, from the year 1772 to 1777 ... by Capt. J. G. Stedman." London. Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Churchyard, and J. Edwards, Pall Mall. 1790. [2 vols. 4to.]

2. "Transatlantic Sketches, comprising visits to the most interesting scenes in North and South America and the West Indies. With notes on negro slavery and Canadian emigration. By Capt. J. E. Alexander, 42 Royal Highlanders." London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington St., 1833. [2 vols.

8vo.]

Also Annual Register, etc.

[The best account of the present condition of the Maroons, or, as they are now called, bush-negroes, of Surinam, is to be found in a graphic narrative of a visit to Dutch Guiana, by W. G. Palgrave, in the _Fortnightly Review_, xxiv. 801; xxv. 194, 536. These papers are reprinted in _Littell's Living Age_, cxxviii. 154, cxxix. 409. He estimates the present numbers of these people as approaching thirty thousand. The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" gives the names of several publications relating to their peculiar dialect, popularly known as Negro-English, but including many Dutch words.]

GABRIEL'S DEFEAT

The materials for the history of Gabriel's revolt are still very fragmentary, and must be sought in the contemporary newspapers. No continuous file of Southern newspapers for the year 1800 was to be found, when this narrative was written, in any Boston or New-York library, though the Harvard-College Library contained a few numbers of the Baltimore _Telegraphe_ and the Norfolk _Epitome of the Times_. My chief reliance has therefore been the Southern correspondence of the Northern newspapers, with the copious extracts there given from Virginian journals. I am chiefly indebted to the Philadelphia _United-States Gazette_, the Boston _Independent Chronicle_, the Salem _Gazette_ and _Register_, the New-York _Daily Advertiser_, and the Connecticut _Courant_. The best continuous narratives that I have found are in the _Courant_ of Sept. 29, 1800, and the Salem _Gazette_ of Oct. 7, 1800; but even these are very incomplete. Several important doc.u.ments I have been unable to discover,--the official proclamation of the governor, the description of Gabriel's person, and the original confession of the slaves as given to Mr. Sheppard. The discovery of these would no doubt have enlarged, and very probably corrected, my narrative.

DENMARK VESEY

1. "Negro Plot. An Account of the late intended insurrection among a portion of the blacks of the city of Charleston, S.C. Published by the Authority of the Corporation of Charleston." Second edition. Boston: printed and published by Joseph W. Ingraham. 1822. 8vo, pp. 50.

[A third edition was printed at Boston during the same year, a copy of which is in the library of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society. The first and fourth editions, which were printed at Charleston, S.C., I have never seen.]

2. "An Official Report of the trials of sundry negroes, charged with an attempt to raise an insurrection in the State of South Carolina: preceded by an introduction and narrative; and in an appendix, a report of the trials of four white persons, on indictments for attempting to excite the slaves to insurrection. Prepared and published at the request of the court. By Lionel H. Kennedy and Thomas Parker, members of the Charleston bar, and the presiding magistrates of the court." Charleston: printed by James R. Schenck, 23 Broad St. 1822. 8vo, pp. 188x4.

3. "Reflections occasioned by the late disturbances in Charleston, by Achates." Charleston: printed and sold by A. E. Miller, No. 4 Broad St.

1822. 8vo, pp. 30.

4. "A Refutation of the Calumnies circulated against the Southern and Western States, respecting the inst.i.tution and existence of slavery among them. To which is added a minute and particular account of the actual state and condition of their Negro Population, together with Historical Notices of all the Insurrections that have taken place since the settlement of the country.--Facts are stubborn things.--_Shakspeare_. By a South Carolinian." [Edwin C. Holland.] Charleston: printed by A. E.

Miller, No. 4 Broad St. 1822. 8vo, pp. 86.

5. "Rev. Dr. Richard Furman's Exposition of the views of the Baptists relative to the colored population in the United States, in a communication to the Governor of South Carolina." Second edition.

Charleston: printed by A. E. Miller, No. 4 Broad St. 1833. 8vo, pp. 16.

[The first edition appeared in 1823. It relates to a pet.i.tion offered by a Baptist Convention for a day of thanksgiving and humiliation, in reference to the insurrection, and to a violent hurricane which had just occurred.]

6. "Practical Considerations, founded on the Scriptures, relative to the Slave Population of South Carolina. Respectfully dedicated to the South Carolina a.s.sociation. By a South Carolinian." Charleston: printed and sold by A. E. Miller, No. 4 Broad St. 1823. 8vo, pp. 38.

7. [The letter of Gov. Bennett, dated Aug. 10, 1822, was evidently printed originally as a pamphlet or circular, though I have not been able to find it in that form. It may be found reprinted in the _Columbian Centinel_ (Aug. 31, 1822), _Connecticut Courant_ (Sept. 3), and Worcester _Spy_ (Sept. 18). It is also printed in Lundy's _Genius of Universal Emanc.i.p.ation_ for September, 1822 (ii. 42), and reviewed in subsequent numbers (pp. 81, 131, 142).]

8. "The Liberty Bell, by Friends of Freedom. Boston: Anti-Slavery Bazaar.

1841. 12mo." [This contains an article on p. 158, ent.i.tled "Servile Insurrections," by Edmund Jackson, including brief personal reminiscences of the Charleston insurrection, during which he resided in that city.]

[Of the above-named pamphlets, all now rare, Nos. 1 and 2 are in my own possession. Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, are in the Wendell Phillips collection of pamphlets in the Boston Public Library.]

NAT TURNER'S INSURRECTION

1. "The Confessions of Nat Turner, the leader of the late Insurrection in Southampton, Va., as fully and voluntarily made to Thomas R. Gray, in the prison where he was confined, and acknowledged by him to be such when read before the Court of Southampton, with the certificate under seal of the court convened at Jerusalem, Nov. 5, 1831, for this trial. Also an authentic account of the whole insurrection, with lists of the whites who were murdered, and of the negroes brought before the Court of Southampton, and there sentenced, etc." New York: printed and published by C. Brown, 211 Water Street, 1831.

[This pamphlet was reprinted in the _Anglo-African Magazine_ (New York), December, 1859. Whether it is identical with the work said by the newspapers of the period to have been published at Baltimore, I have been unable to ascertain. But if, as was alleged, forty thousand copies of the Baltimore pamphlet were issued, it seems impossible that they should have become so scarce. The first reprint of the Confession, so far as I know, was a partial one in Abdy's "Journal in the United States." London. 1835.

3 vols. 8vo.]

2. "Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene which was witnessed in Southhampton County (Va.), on Monday, the 22d of August last, when Fifty-five of its inhabitants (mostly women and children) were inhumanly ma.s.sacred by the blacks! Communicated by those who were eye-witnesses of the b.l.o.o.d.y scene, and confirmed by the confessions of several of the Blacks, while under Sentence of Death." [By Samuel Warner, New York.] Printed for Warner & West. 1831. 12mo, pp. 36 [or more, copy incomplete. With a frontispiece]. Among the Wendell Phillips tracts in the Boston Public Library.

3. "Slave Insurrection in 1831, in Southampton County, Va., headed by Nat Turner. Also a conspiracy of slaves in Charleston, S.C., in 1822." New York: compiled and published by Henry Bibb, 9 Spruce St. 1849. 12mo, pp.

12.

[The contemporary newspaper narratives may be found largely quoted in the first volume of the _Liberator_ (1831), and in Lundy's _Genius of Universal Emanc.i.p.ation_ (September, 1831). The files of the Richmond _Enquirer_ have also much information on the subject.]