Part 9

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 documents 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.

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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.

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 institution 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.

6. "Practical Considerations, founded on the Scriptures, relative to the Slave Population of South Carolina. Respectfully dedicated to the South Carolina Association. 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 Emancipation 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, entitled "Servile Insurrections," by Edmund Jackson, including brief personal reminiscences of the Charleston insurrection, during which he resided in that city.]

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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.

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 massacred by the blacks! Communicated by those who were eye-witnesses of the bloody 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.