Governor John Floyd (Virginia) to J.C. Harris,

September 27, 1831

                                                                                                                              Executive Department

                                                                                                                              September 27th 1831

Sir:

        I received this afternoon the letter you did me the favor to address to me, also the “Liberator” the newspaper inclosed [sic] for which accept my acknowledgements.

        These men do not conceal their intentions, but urge on negroes and Mulattoes, slaves and free to the indiscriminate massacre of all white people.

        I should be glad if you would permit that paper to come to your office to the end that we might procure it to lay before the General Assembly, only for the purpose of exhibiting the cold and determined spirit with which these men plan and encourage insurrection and rebellion, treason and massacre in the Southern States and upon which proof, it is hoped, an inquiry may be instituted, how far it comports with the obligations due from the several states, parties to the Federal Compact, to permit a man or citizen  to set himself down safely and calmly on the other side of an imaginary line, and incite insurrection and rebellion in a sister state, whose hands are tied by the Federal Constitution.

                                                                                                                                        Yours with

                                                                                                                                        great respect

                                                                                                                                        John Floyd

J. C. Harris Esq.

    P.M.  Orange C.H.

Henry Irving Tragle, The Southampton Slave Revolt of 1831: A Compilation of Source Material (Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1971), 274-275.