"revolting,"--"inhuman and not to be justified,"--"acts of barbarity and
cruelty,"--"acts of atrocity,"--"this course of proceeding dignifies the
rebel and the assassin with the sanctity of martyrdom." And he ends by
threatening martial law upon all future transgressors. Such general
orders are not issued except in rather extreme cases. And in the parallel
columns of the newspaper the innocent editor prints equally indignant
descriptions of Russian atrocities in Lithuania, where the Poles were
engaged in active insurrection, amid profuse sympathy from Virginia.

The truth is, it was a Reign of Terror. Volunteer patrols rode in all
directions, visiting plantations. "It was with the greatest difficulty,"
said Gen. Brodnax before the House of Delegates, "and at the hazard of
personal popularity and esteem, that the coolest and most judicious among
us could exert an influence sufficient to restrain an indiscriminate
slaughter of the blacks who were suspected." A letter from the Rev. G. W.
Powell declares, "There are thousands of troops searching in every
direction, and many negroes are killed every day: the exact number will
never be ascertained." Petition after petition was subsequently presented
to the Legislature, asking compensation for slaves thus assassinated
without trial.

Men were tortured to death, burned, maimed, and subjected to nameless
atrocities. The overseers were called on to point out any slaves whom
they distrusted, and if any tried to escape they were shot down. Nay,
worse than this. "A party of horsemen started from Richmond with the
intention of killing every colored person they saw in Southampton County.
They stopped opposite the cabin of a free colored man, who was hoeing in
his little field. They called out, 'Is this Southampton County?' He
replied, 'Yes, sir, you have just crossed the line, by yonder tree.' They
shot him dead, and rode on." This is from the narrative of the editor of