The Confessions of Nat Turner: The Leader of the Late Insurrections 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 His Trial. Also, an Authentic Account of the Whole Insurrection.Turner, Nat
History
The Confessions of Nat Turner: The Leader of the Late Insurrections 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 His Trial. Also, an Authentic Account of the Whole Insurrection.
Porter's, he had escaped with his family. I
understood there, that the alarm had already spread, and I immediately
returned to bring up those sent to Mr. Doyles, and Mr. Howell Harris';
the party I left going on to Mr. Francis', having told them I would join
them in that neighborhood. I met these sent to Mr. Doyles' and Mr.
Harris' returning, having met Mr. Doyle on the road and killed him; and
learning from some who joined them, that Mr. Harris was from home, I
immediately pursued the course taken by the party gone on before; but
knowing they would complete the work of death and pillage, at Mr.
Francis' before I could get there, I went to Mr. Peter Edwards',
expecting to find them there, but they had been here also. I then went
to Mr. John T. Barrow's, they had been here and murdered him. I pursued
on their track to Capt. Newit Harris', where I found the greater part
mounted, and ready to start; the men now amounting to about forty,
shouted and hurraed as I rode up, some were in the yard, loading their
guns, others drinking. They said Captain Harris and his family had
escaped, the property in the house they destroyed, robbing him of money
and other valuables. I ordered them to mount and march instantly, this
was about nine or ten o'clock, Monday morning. I proceeded to Mr. Levi
Waller's, two or three miles distant. I took my station in the rear, and
as it 'twas my object to carry terror and devastation wherever we went,
I placed fifteen or twenty of the best armed and most to be relied on,
in front, who generally approached the houses as fast as their horses
could run; this was for two purposes, to prevent their escape and strike
terror to the inhabitants--on this account I never got to the houses,
after leaving Mrs. Whitehead's, until the murders were committed, except
in one case. I sometimes got in sight in time to see the work of death
completed, viewed the mangled bodies as they lay, in silent
satisfaction, and immediately started in quest of other victims--Having
murdered Mrs. Waller and ten children, we started for Mr. William
Williams'--having killed him and two little boys that were there; while
engaged in this, Mrs. Williams fled and got some distance from the
house, but she was pursued, overtaken, and compelled to get up behind
one of the company, who brought her back, and after showing her the
mangled body of her lifeless husband, she was told to get down and lay
by his side, where she was shot dead. I then started for Mr. Jacob
Williams, where the family were murdered--Here we found a young man
named Drury, who had come on business with Mr. Williams--he was pursued,
overtaken and shot. Mrs. Vaughan was the next place we visited--and
after murdering the family here, I determined on starting for
Jerusalem--Our number amounted now to fifty or sixty, all mounted and
armed with guns, axes, swords and clubs--On reaching Mr. James W.
Parkers' gate, immediately on the road leading to Jerusalem, and about
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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