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

Meredith College

Created with Wix.com

THE NAT TURNER PROJECT

  • HOME

  • SETTING

  • REVOLT

  • AFTERMATH

  • IMPACT

  • More

    Vigilante Violence

     

    Both official militia troops and white citizens acting as free agents reportedly killed an unknown number of slaves and free blacks after word of the rebellion got out to the larger white community. Estimates of precisely how many lives these atrocities claimed have ranged widely—from the single digits to several thousand.

     

    Sources suggest, however, that anger and fear drove some white southerners in and beyond Southampton County to wage indiscriminate attacks against African Americans in the days following the revolt.

    Newspaper Articles

    Richmond Whig, September 3, 1831

    Niles Register, September 10, 1831

    Daily Advertiser, September, 1831

    The Liberator, October 1, 1831

     

    Personal Accounts

    Edenton, North Carolina: Charity Bowery (former slave), 1839 North Carolina: Rev. Francis Hawley (white minister), 1839

    Riddicksville, N.C., and Edenton, GA: M. M. Shafter, 1839

    Richmond, Virginia: Henry “Box” Brown (former slave), 1851

    Edenton, North Carolina: Harriet Jacobs (former slave), 1861

    Background Image:

    Blackhead Signpost Road, where the head of a rebel decapitated by militia was hung to deter other slaves from considering rebellion.