A Social History of the American Negro - Being a History of the Negro Problem in the United States. Including - A History and Study of the Republic of Liberia by Benjamin Brawley
page 185 of 545 (33%)
page 185 of 545 (33%)
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nothing more than he had communicated; and told the sheriff in a firm
voice that he was ready. Not a limb or muscle was observed to move. His body, after death, was given over to the surgeons for dissection." [Footnote 1: The only copy that the author has seen is that in the library of Harvard University.] Of fifty-three Negroes arraigned in connection with the insurrection "seventeen were executed and twelve transported. The rest were discharged, except ... four free Negroes sent on to the Superior Court. Three of the four were executed." [1] Such figures as these, however, give no conception of the number of those who lost their lives in connection with the insurrection. In general, if slaves were convicted by legal process and executed or transported, or if they escaped before trial, they were paid for by the commonwealth; if killed, they were not paid for, and a man like Phipps might naturally desire to protect his prisoner in order to get his reward. In spite of this, the Negroes were slaughtered without trial and sometimes under circumstances of the greatest barbarity. One man proudly boasted that he had killed between ten and fifteen. A party went from Richmond with the intention of killing every Negro in Southampton County. Approaching the cabin of a free Negro they asked, "Is this Southampton County?" "Yes, sir," came the reply, "you have just crossed the line by yonder tree." They shot him dead and rode on. In general the period was one of terror, with voluntary patrols, frequently drunk, going in all directions. These men tortured, burned, or maimed the Negroes practically at will. Said one old woman [2] of them: "The patrols were low drunken whites, and in Nat's time, if they heard any of the colored folks prayin' or singin' a hymn, they would fall upon 'em and abuse 'em, and sometimes kill 'em.... The brightest and best was killed in Nat's time. The whites always |
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