© 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 by Sarah N. Roth,

Meredith College

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THE NAT TURNER PROJECT

  • HOME

  • SETTING

  • REVOLT

  • AFTERMATH

  • IMPACT

  • More

    Slave Life

     

    In Southampton County as a whole, enslaved people made up nearly half of the total population (48%). Most enslaved people (67.5%) in St. Luke’s Parish—the immediate neighborhood where the revolt took place—lived on farms with thirty or fewer slaves. The main crops in Southampton County were corn, cotton, and tobacco. Potatoes, plantains, peanuts, and wheat were grown in smaller quantities. Southampton County was known for its bacon, its brandy, and its cider. Enslaved people raised hogs and worked in the peach and apple orchards that proliferated throughout the county.

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    Black residents, free and enslaved, made up 59% of the county’s population in 1830. Blacks outnumbered whites by a ratio of nearly 3 to 2. That did not mean, however, that African Americans in Southampton had much control over their lives. Visitors and residents testified to the harsh conditions under which slaves, in particular, lived.  Occasionally, the enslaved lashed out against whites with violence or tried to escape their situation by running away.

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    Testimony can be found in sources from the 1820s and 1830s about the ways slaveholders treated the people they held in bondage in southeastern Virginia prior to 1831. Evidence also exists, in the form of runaway advertisements and court cases, about the ways enslaved people resisted that treatment. Taken together, these sources add up to a picture of what it was like to be among the enslaved in and around Southampton County during the years leading up to the rebellion.

    Treatment of Enslaved People

    “A Virginian” (food)

    George A. Avery, former resident of Virginia

    Samuel Ellison, native of Southampton County

    Lemuel Sapington, former slave trader (clothing)

    Lemuel Sapington, former slave trader (housing)

    John H. Curtiss, native of Norfolk County

    Samuel Ellison, native of Southampton County

    Rev. Henry T. Hopkins, former resident, Portsmouth

    William Poe, native of Richmond

    L. Turner, native of Caroline County

    Gurdon Chapman, visitor to Nansemond County

    Lemuel Sapington, former slave trader, southern VA

    William S. Drewry, interviewed descendants (1900)

    Slave Auctions

    Slave for Sale

    Slaves Wanted

    Capture

    John Brown, former slave, Southampton County

    William S. Drewry, interviewed descendants (1900)

    Slave Resistance

    Slave Coffle Rebellion:  Southampton County, 1799

     

    Murder of an Overseer:  Southampton County, 1802

     

    Arson and Murder: Southampton County, 1821

     

    Assault with an Axe: Southampton County, 1830

     

    Runaway Advertisements: North Carolina and Virginia

     

    Slave Song:  "Come Down and Trouble the Water"