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In the morning we dispatched a runner to the Nottoway Town, to let the Indians
know we intended them a visit that evening, and our honest landlord was so kind as to
be our pilot thither, being about four miles from his house. Accordingly, in the afternoon
we marched in good order to the town, where the female scouts, stationed on an eminence
for that purpose, had no sooner spied us, but they gave notice of our approach to their
fellow-citizens by continual whoops and cries, which could not possibly have been more
dismal at the sight of their most implacable enemies. This signal assembled all their great
men, who received us in a body, and conducted us into the fort. This fort was a square
piece of ground, enclosed with substantial puncheons, or strong palisades, about ten feet
high, and leaning a little outwards, to make a scalade more difficult. Each side of the
square might be about a hundred yards long, with loop-holes at proper distances, through
which they might fire upon the enemy. Within this enclosure we found bark cabins sufficient
to lodge all their people, in case they should be obliged to retire thither. These
cabins are no other but close arbors made of saplings, arched at the top, and covered so
well with bark as to be proof against all weather. The fire is made in the middle,
according to the Hibernian fashion, the smoke whereof finds no other vent but at the
door, and so keeps the whole family warm, at the expense both of their eyes and complexion.
The Indians have no standing furniture in their cabins but hurdles to repose
their persons upon, which they cover with mats and deer-skins. We were conducted to
the best apartments in the fort, which just before had been made ready for our reception,
and adorned with new mats that were very sweet and clean. The young men had
painted themselves in a hideous manner, not so much for ornament as terror. In that
frightful equipage they entertained us with sundry war-dances, wherein they endeavored

to look as formidable as possible. The instrument they danced to was an Indian drum,
that is, a large gourd with a skin braced tight over the mouth of it. The dancers all
sang to the music, keeping exact time with their feet, while their heads and arms were
screwed into a thousand menacing postures. Upon this occasion the ladies had arrayed
themselves in all their finery. They were wrapped in their red and blue match coats,
thrown so negligently about them that their mahogany skins appeared in several parts,
like the Lacedæmonian damsels of old. Their hair was braided with white and blue
peak, and hung gracefully in a large roll upon their shoulders.

This peak consists of small cylinders cut out of a conch-shell, drilled through, and
strung like beads. It serves them both for money and jewels, the blue being of much
greater value than the white, for the same reason that Ethiopian mistresses in France
are dearer than French, because they are more scarce. The women wear necklaces and
bracelets of these precious materials, when they have a mind to appear lovely. Though
their complexions be a little sad-colored, yet their shapes are very straight and well-proportioned.
Their faces are seldom handsome, yet they have an air of innocence and
bashfulness, that, with a little less dirt, would not fail to make them desirable. Such
charms might have had their full effect upon men who had been so long deprived of
female conversation, but that the whole winter's soil was so crusted on the skins of those
dark angels, that it required a very strong appetite to approach them. The bear's oil,
with which they anoint their persons all over, makes their skins soft, and at the same
time protects them from every species of vermin that use to be troublesome to other
uncleanly people.

The little work that is done among the Indians is done by the poor women, while the
men are quite idle, or at most employed only in the gentlemanly diversions of hunting
and fishing. In this, as well as in their wars, they use nothing but fire-arms, which
they purchase of the English for skins. Bows and arrows are grown into disuse, except
only amongst their boys. Nor is it ill policy, but on the contrary very prudent, thus to
furnish the Indians with fire-arms, because it makes them depend entirely upon the English,
not only for their trade, but even for their subsistence. Besides, they were really
able to do more mischief while they made use of arrows, of which they would let silently fly
several in a minute with wonderful dexterity; whereas now they hardly ever discharge
their firelocks more than once, which they insidiously do from behind a tree, and then
retire as nimbly as the Dutch horse used to do now and then formerly in Flanders. We put
the Indians to no expense, but only of a little corn for our horses, for which in gratitude
we cheered their hearts with what rum we had left, which they love better than they do
their wives and children. Though these Indians dwell among the English, and see in
what plenty a little industry enables them to live, yet they choose to continue in their
stupid idleness, and to suffer all the inconveniences of dirt, cold, and want, rather than
to disturb their heads with care, or defile their hands with labor.

The whole number of people belonging to the Nottoway Town, if you include women
and children, amount to about two hundred. These are the only Indians of any consequence
now remaining within the limits of Virginia. The rest are either removed, or
dwindled to a very inconsiderable number, either by destroying one another, or else by
the smallpox and other diseases. Though nothing has been so fatal to them as their
ungovernable passion for rum, with which, I am sorry to say it, they have been but too
liberally supplied by the English that live near them.

The leader of this insurrection and massacre was a slave by the name of Nat Turner,
about thirty-one years of age, born the slave of Mr. Benjamin Turner, of Southampton
county. From a child, Nat appears to have been the victim of superstition and fanaticism.
He stimulated his comrades to join him in the massacre, by declaring to them
that he had been commissioned by Jesus Christ, and that he was acting under inspired
direction in what he was going to accomplish.

In the confession which he voluntarily made to Mr. Grey, while in prison, he says:
"That in his childhood a circumstance occurred which made an indelible impression on
his mind, and laid the groundwork of the enthusiasm which terminated so fatally to
many. Being at play with other children, when three or four years old, I told them

something, which my mother overhearing, said it happened before I was born. I stuck
to my story, however, and related some things which went, in her opinion, to confirm it;
others being called on were greatly astonished, knowing these things had happened, and
caused them to say in my hearing, I surely would be a prophet, as the Lord had showed
me things which happened before my birth." His parents strengthened him in this belief,
and said in his presence, that he was intended for some great purpose, which they
had always thought from certain marks on his head and breast. Nat, as he grew up,
was fully persuaded he was destined to accomplish some great purpose; his powers
of mind appeared much superior to his fellow slaves; they looked up to him as a person
guided by divine inspiration, which belief he ever inculcated by his austerity of life and
manners.

After a variety of revelations from the spiritual world, Nat says, in his confession,
that, "On the 12th of May, 1828, I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit
instantly appeared to me, and said the serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down
the yoke he had borne for the sins of men; and that I should take it on and fight
against the serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and
the last should be first—and by signs in the heavens that it would make known to me
when I should commence the great work—and until the first sign appeared, I should
conceal it from the knowledge of men. And on the appearance of the sign, (the eclipse
of the sun last February, 1831,) I should arise and prepare myself, and slay my enemies
with their own weapons. And immediately on the sign appearing in the heavens, the
seal was removed from my lips, and I communicated the great work laid out for me to
do, to four, in whom I had the greatest confidence, (Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam.)
It was intended by us to have begun the work of death on the 4th July last. Many
were the plans formed and rejected by us; and it affected my mind to such a degree,
that I fell sick, and the time passed without our coming to any determination how to
commence—still forming new schemes and rejecting them, when the sign appeared
again, which determined me not to wait longer."

Nat commenced the massacre by the murder of his master and family. He says:
"Since the commencement of 1830, I had been living with Mr. Joseph Travis, who was
to me a kind master, and placed the greatest confidence in me. In fact, I had no cause
to complain of his treatment to me. On Saturday evening, the 20th of August, it was
agreed between Henry, Hark, and myself, to prepare a dinner the next day for the men
we expected, and then to concert a plan, as we had not yet determined on any. Hark,
on the following morning, brought a pig, and Henry, brandy; and being joined by Sam,
Nelson, Will, and Jack, they prepared in the woods a dinner, where, about three o'clock,
I joined them. I saluted them on coming up, and asked Will how came he there; he
answered, his life was worth no more than others, and his liberty as dear to him. I
asked him if he thought to obtain it? He said he would, or lose his life. This was
enough to put him in full confidence. Jack, I knew, was only a tool in the hands of
Hark. It was quickly agreed we should commence at home, (Mr. J. Travis',) on that
night; and, until we had armed and equipped ourselves, and gathered sufficient force,
neither age nor sex was to be spared, (which was invariably adhered to.) We remained
at the feast until about two hours in the night, when we went to the house and found
Austin; they all went to the cider press and drank, except myself. On returning to the
house, Hark went to the door with an axe for the purpose of breaking it open, as we
knew we were strong enough to murder the family, if they were awakened by the noise;
but reflecting that it might create an alarm in the neighborhood, we determined to enter
the house secretly, and murder them while sleeping. Hark got a ladder and set it
against the chimney, on which I ascended, and hoisting a window, entered and came
down stairs, unbarred the door, and removed the guns from their places. It was then
observed that I must spill the first blood. On which, armed with a hatchet, and accompanied
by Will, I entered my master's chamber; it being dark, I could not give a
death-blow; the hatchet glanced from his head, he sprang from the bed and called his
wife; it was his last word. Will laid him dead with a blow of his axe, and Mrs.
Travis shared the same fate as she lay in bed. The murder of this family, five in
number, was the work of a moment, not one of them awoke; there was a little infant
sleeping in a cradle, that was forgotten until we had left the house and gone some distance,
when Henry and Will returned and killed it; we got here four guns that would
shoot, and several old muskets, with a pound or two of powder. We remained some
time at the barn, where we paraded; I formed them in a line as soldiers, and after carrying
them through all the manœuvres I was master of, marched them off to Mr. Salathiel
Francis', about six hundred yards distant."

They proceeded in this manner from house to house, murdering all the whites they
could find, their force augmenting as they proceeded, till they amounted to fifty or sixty
in number, all mounted, armed with guns, axes, swords, and clubs. They then started
for Jerusalem, and proceeded a few miles, when they were met by a party of white
men who fired upon them, and forced them to retreat. "On my way back, (says Nat,)
I called at Mrs. Thomas's, Mrs. Spencer's, and several other places; the white families
having fled, we found no more victims to gratify our thirst for blood. We stopped at
Major Ridley's quarter for the night, and being joined by four of his men, with the recruits
made since my defeat, we mustered now about forty strong.

"After placing out sentinels, I lay down to sleep, but was quickly roused by a great
racket; starting up, I found some mounted, and others in great confusion. One of the
sentinels having given the alarm that we were about to be attacked, I ordered some to ride
round and reconnoitre; and on their return the others being more alarmed, not knowing
who they were, fled in different ways, so that I was reduced to about twenty again;
with this I determined to attempt to recruit, and proceeded on to rally in the neighborhood
I had left. Dr. Blunt's was the nearest house, which we reached just before day;
on riding up the yard, Hark fired a gun. We expected Dr. Blunt and his family were
at Major Ridley's, as I knew there was a company of men there; the gun was fired to
ascertain if any of the family were at home; we were immediately fired upon and retreated,
leaving several of my men. I do not know what became of them, as I never
saw them afterwards. Pursuing our course back, and coming in sight of Capt. Harris's,
where we had been the day before, we discovered a party of white men at the house,
on which all deserted me but two, (Jacob and Nat.) We concealed ourselves in the
woods until near night, when I sent them in search of Henry, Sam, Nelson, and Hark;
and directed them to rally all they could, at the place we had had our dinner the Sunday
before, where they would find me; and I accordingly returned there as soon as it
was dark, and remained until Wednesday evening, when, discovering white men riding
around the place, as though they were looking for some one, and none of my men joining
me, I concluded Jacob and Nat had been taken, and compelled to betray me. On
this I gave up all hope for the present, and on Thursday night, after having supplied
myself with provisions from Mr. Travis', I scratched a hole under a pile of fence-rails
in a field, where I concealed myself for six weeks, never leaving my hiding-place but
for a few minutes in the dead of the night to get water, which was very near; thinking
by this time I could venture out, I began to go about in the night, and evesdrop the
houses in the neighborhood; pursuing this course for about a fortnight, and gathering
little or no intelligence, afraid of speaking to any human being, and returning every
morning to my cave before the dawn of day. I know not how long I might have led
this life, if accident had not betrayed me. A dog in the neighborhood, passing by my
hiding-place one night while I was out, was attracted by some meat I had in my cave,
and crawled in and stole it, and was coming out just as I returned. A few nights after,
two negroes having started to go hunting with the same dog, and passed that way, the
dog came again to the place, and having just gone out to walk about, discovered me and
barked, on which, thinking myself discovered, I spoke to them to beg concealment.
On making myself known they fled from me. Knowing then they would betray me, I
immediately left my hiding-place, and was pursued almost incessantly, until I was
taken a fortnight afterwards, by Mr. Benjamin Phipps, in a little hole I had dug out
with my sword, for the purpose of concealment, under the top of a fallen tree. On Mr.
Phipps' discovering the place of my concealment, he cocked his gun and aimed at me.
I requested him not to shoot, and I would give up, upon which he demanded my sword.
I delivered it to him and he brought me to prison."

Nat was executed according to his sentence, at Jerusalem, Nov. 11th, 1831. The
following is a list of the persons murdered in the insurrection, on the 21st and 22d of
August, 1831:

Joseph Travis and wife and three children, Mrs. Elizabeth Turner, Hartwell Prebles,
Sarah Newsome, Mrs. P. Reese and son William, Trajan Doyle, Henry Bryant and
wife and child, and wife's mother; Mrs. Catharine Whitehead, son Richard, four daughters
and grand-child; Salathiel Francis, Nathaniel Francis' overseer and two children,
John T. Barrow, George Vaughan, Mrs. Levi Waller and ten children, William Williams,
wife and two boys; Mrs. Caswell Worrel and child, Mrs. Rebecca Vaughan, Ann
Elizabeth Vaughan and son Arthur, Mrs. John K. Williams and child, Mrs. Jacob
Williams and three children, and Edward Drury—amounting to fifty-five.