XCIV.
XCIV. JOHN FLOYD.
XCIV. Governor.
XCIV. March, 1830, to March, 1834.
John Floyd, Governor of Virginia, was born in Jefferson
County, Virginia, April 24, 1783. He was the son of John
Floyd, a man conspicuous in the stirring scenes in which he
lived, and memorable as a surveyor, a legislator, and a soldier
in the interesting annals of Kentucky and Virginia, from
1769 to 1783.
John Floyd, Jr., was educated at Dickenson College,
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and at the age of twenty-one married,
in Kentucky, his cousin Letitia, daughter of Colonel William
Preston. Later, he graduated in medicine at the University
of Pennsylvania, and settled in Montgomery County, Virginia.
He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in June, 1807; commissioned
as Major of Militia in 1808; served as surgeon in
the Virginia Line in 1812, in the second war with Great
Britain, and in the same year was elected a member of the
House of Delegates of Virginia. In 1817 he was elected to
the United States House of Representatives, and efficiently
served in that body until 1829. In 1830 Mr. Floyd was
elected Governor of Virginia by the General Assembly, and
filled this office most acceptably until 1834. His health
having become very delicate he retired from public life, and
died suddenly at the Sweet Springs, Montgomery County,
August 15, 1837.
In the second year of Governor Floyd's administration as
chief executive of Virginia, occurred the notable event known
as the "Southampton Insurrection." This was a futile uprising
of a few negroes led on to deeds of blood by a
master-spirit, whose desire it was to exterminate the white
race. This tragic event took place in the County of Southampton,
south of James River, in the summer of 1831.
Unlike Gabriel (the negro leader of the servile insurrection
of 1800), who was twenty-four years of age, tall and powerful
in person, with a grim and repulsive face scarred by fighting,
the leader of the Southampton Insurrection was a negro of
feeble person, but of great cunning. He passed among his
people as a prophet, and by his powerful influence over them
filled them with a thirst for blood. Nat Turner, this swarthy
leader, attacked his master's house, killed him, his wife, and
children with the axe, and with his band put to sudden and
violent death fifty-five whites, almost all of whom were women
and children. The men of the county, aroused by these
atrocities, pursued the insurgents, killed many and captured
others, thirteen of whom were hung with Nat Turner, their
wicked "prophet."
These events caused great excitement throughout Virginia,
but the man at the head of affairs in the Old Dominion
was ready for the emergency. It was said of him: "None
who knew Governor Floyd well could have failed to receive
the impression that nature had endued him with the qualities
of the hero, and that the stage and the opportunity only, were
wanting to have enabled him to shine among those who dazzled
mankind with deeds of chivalry and prowess." He was
a man of unusually handsome and commanding appearance,
and in those days of anxiety during the "Southampton Insurrection,"
the people of Virginia felt that in their Governor
they possessed a tower of strength—a man whose wisdom
and valor were equal to any emergency.
He took efficient means to suppress this insurrectionary
spirit, but the tragic story of Nat Turner and his murderous
allies still lends a painful interest to this administration.
Floyd County, Virginia, formed in 1831 from Montgomery
County, was named in honor of Governor Floyd, and his record
is that of a man gifted with the noblest qualities of human
nature, who finished his course untouched by blame, and died
as he had lived, the inflexibly upright and devoted patriot.
