Primary Sources
Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene- Samuel Warner 1831
h o r r i d m a s s a c r e
"In consequence of the alarming increase of the Black population at the South, fears have been long entertained, that it might one day be the unhappy lot of the whites, in that section, to witness scenes similar to those which but a few years since, nearly depopulated the once flourishing island of St. Domingo of its white inhabitants—but, these fears have never been realized even in a small degree, until the fatal morning of the 22d of August last, when it fell to the lot of the inhabitants of a thinly settled township of Southampton county (Virginia) to witness a scene horrid in the extreme!—when FIFTY FIVE innocent persons (mostly women and children) fell victim to the most inhuman barbarity.
The melancholy and bloody event was as sudden and unexpected, as unprecedented for cruelty—for many months previous an artful black, known by the name of Nat Turner, (a slave of Mr. Edward Travis) who had been taught to read and write, and who hypocritically and the better to enable him to effect his nefarious designs, assumed the character of a Preacher, and as such was sometimes permitted to visit and associate himself with many of the Plantation Negroes, for the purpose (as was by him artfully represented) of christianizing and to teach them the propriety of their remaining faithful and obedient to their masters; but, in reality, to persuade and to prepare them in the most sly and artful manner to become the instruments of their slaughter!—in this he too well succeeded, by representing to the poor deluded wretches the Blessings of Liberty, and the inhumanity and injustice of their being forced like brutes from the land of their nativity, and doomed without fault or crime to perpetual bondage, and by those who were not more entitled to their liberty than themselves!—he too represented to them the happy effects which had been attended the united efforts of their brethren in St. Domingo, and elsewhere, and encouraged them with the assurance that a similar effort on their part, could not fail to produce a similar effect, and not only restore them to liberty but would produce them wealth and ease!—and too well did he succeed by this devise, in producing disaffection and in obtaining the promises of many to acknowledge him their leader, and to act in obedience to his will, A plan was by him next devised when, where and how to commence the attack—it was to be before the break of day on the morning of the 22d, on the defenceless and thinly settled inhabitants in the neighborhood of the Cross Keys, Southampton county, twenty miles above Murfreesboro’. They had succeeded in procuring and secreting arms suitable for the bloody purpose, and with which from 20 to 30, headed by “General Nat,” (as he was now termed) proceeded under cover of night to commence an indiscriminate murder of the inhabitants—with out regard to sex or age!"
Authentic and Impartial Narrative of the Tragical Scene- Samuel Warner 1831
i n s u r r e c t i o n i n n o r t h c a r o l i n a
Washington, Sept. 17, 1831.
By the Morning Chronicle received to-day, a report was communicated, calculated to produce much excitement. Coming so soon after the Southampton affair, and at a moment when our community was not a little troubled by rumors, I early determined to ascertain all the facts known in the city. I traveled the whole way from Fayetteville, N.C. to this city. He told me there was a report at Fayetteville, that the Negroes had risen in force, taken and burnt Wilmington, and massacred many whites. He heard nothing on his way to Raleigh, to confirm this report. But at Raleigh there was great commotion and some distraction, caused by the arrival there of an express with dispatch from the county of Duplin to the Governor, communicating the appalling information of an insurrection of the blacks in that county, and that seventeen or twenty families had been butchered by them. Of the truth of this there can be no doubt. At the same time there was going on a the Court house in Raleigh, an examination of some fifty or sixty negroes; but it had not been ascertained that any concert existed between them and the insurgents in Duplin. My informant said he heard no more of the talking and burning of Wilmington, until he arrived at Petersburg, where was circulating the report he had heard in Fayetteville. Such scenes at that of Southampton, and this reported in Duplin, may be expected occasionally, in all the Southern States. It is much to be regretted that they are instigated by fierce, ignorant fanatics, assuming to be preachers. This will tend to the exclusion of the poor African from the benefits of all religious instruction under the ministrations of persons of their own complexion. I foresee that this land must one day or other, become a field of blood. There is now encamped on the eastern suburbs of the city a small military company from Fort Washington, there being in the adjacent county, Prince George’s, a very large number of negroes, owned principally by the large planters of that fertile district.
RALEIGH, Sept. 15, 1831.
Our city has been in a complete state of fermentation since Monday night, on account of an insurrection among the negroes. On Monday night, an express arrived at 10 o’clock, with the intelligence that the town of Wilmington was burnt, half of the inhabitants murdered, and the negroes in the counties of Duplin, Bladen, Sampson and others, in a state of insubordination, having collected in large bodies near the line of Sampson and Johnson, murdering and burning all before them. The first is a false alarm; but the latter is too true. Letters were received on Tuesday evening, one of which stated that 15 families in Duplin had been murdered as early as Monday morning; and another from Gen. Whitfield, which said 17. The people of Johnson have left their houses and retreated to Smithfield, which affords a complete place of encampment
There were 500 militia assembled there on Tuesday night, one hundred of whom were mounted. It is not known how far the insubordination may extend, but it is thought there is a general concert among the negroes to an alarming extent. The citizens of Fayetteville are also under arms. As to our city, every thing had been in a state of preparation for war. The city, in consequence, presented one continual motion, and a new company was formed of persons exempt, amounting to 90. Arms have been distributed to them, and also to the militia, on Tuesday night, 85 men were under arms all night. I had a musket on my shoulder, from 8 until nearly 6 in the morning.— Yesterday the City Guards, the exempts, the militia, were under arms nearly all day, patrolling every hole and corner of the city, and examining everything. About 50 negroes, most of them free, were examined by a committee, but nothing discovered. A number of families have left their homes and taken refuge in the city. The people of Raleigh have been, and still are, in a high state of excitement. Persons of all ages and ranks have volunteered their services. The females are greatly alarmed.