Slave insurrections in Virginia (1830-1865)

Chapter 1

REVIVED 1MP0RTA>;CE OF SDAVERY— Industrial, social and political development— Revived study of economies—Virginia's progress in internal improvements and education— Improved condition of the negro, socially, politically, and intellectually 9

Chapter II

THE INSURRECTION— Description of Southampton County-Its condition, social, political, and financial— The development of the plot: time chosen for arousing the slaves; character of the originator of the insurrection — The raid: from the meeting in the woods to the first resistance at Parker's Field; from Pai'ker's Field to Nat's return to the rendezvous in the woods — Pursuit and capture of the insurgents; why the negroes were not sooner suppressed by the citizens; cause of the delay of distant militia; aid furnished by Virginia and Carolina troops; efficient service of cavalry; cases of rashness and escape of guilty negroes; reason and humanity prevail; captm*e of Nat Turner— Trials and executions. ... 20

CHAPTER HI.

EEIiATIONS TO SLAVERY AND THE SOUTH— Condition of the negroes of the county— System of labor such as to inspire ambition in the slave— Class system and pride— Pew overseers and poor whites — Reciprocal confidence of master and servant— Great emancipation sentiment — Only one sign of rebellion previous to 1831, and this by negroes smuggled into the countj^-- Causes of the insurrection: fanaticism and love of self-importance;

CONTENTS. 5

CHAPTER III.— Continued

inclination for robbery and plunder; influence of tlie St. Domingo massacre; foreign policy of the United States,

(a) with South American Republics and West Indies,

(b) with Mexico; Indian troubles, (a) Creeks and Cherokees, (b) Seminoles of Florida; abolition movement — General character of the insurrection — Results: its influence on slave legislation, the emancipation sentiment, arid the abolition movement throughout America lOS

Chapter IV

CONCLUSION— Insurrection largely responsible for more stringent laws against negToes— Insurrections not due to cruelty of the slave system— ^The more sensible negroes remained loyal, while the weaker ones rebelled — Poreign' influence on negro revolts — Contiguity of three bodies of free negroes to the United States— Indian troubles^ Abolition movement in distant sections — Slave legislation—The negro as a free citizen 181

Appendix

A. List of negi'oes brought before the Court of Southaimpton. 195

B. List of white persons murdered in the InsiuiTection 196

G, Principal citizens Interviewed personally ... 197

D, Bibliography 198

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Birthplace aud Home of Gen. G«orge H. Thomas Frontispiece

Map of Southampton County 19

Site of the Residence of Mr. Joseph Travis ^ft

Portrait of Nat Turner 28

Nat Turner's Bible ; 32

Persons' Mill Pond 34

Home of Mr. Salathiel Francis 38

The Turner Farm 42

Home of Mrs. Catherine Whitehead 44

Barnes' M. E. Chm-ch 47

Home of Mr. Richard Porter 49

Home of Nathaniel Francis 50

Cuddy at Nathaniel Francis' 52

Portiiiit of Mrs. Lavinia Francis 54

Portrait of Hardie Musguave 56

Site of the Home of Capt. John T, BaiTow 58

Elm Growing on the Grave of Capt. J. T. Barrow 60

Capt. Newit HaiTis' Brandy Cellar 62

Site of Kitchen at Levi Waller's 64

Portrait of Mr. and Mi-s. Wall 67

Old Shop at Waller's 69

Home of Mrs. Rebecca Vaughn 70

Blackhead Sign Post 72

Residence of Mr. James Parker 75

Parker's Gate "^^

Battlefield in Parker's Field , 76

Bridge Over Nottoway River at Jerusalem 78

Cypress Bridge Over Nottoway River 80

Ridley's Quarters o2

Residence of Dr. Simon Blunt oi

Tui-ner's Methodist Church 86

Nat Turner's Cave ^

Nat Turner's Sword ^

Home of Benjamin Phipps »*

Cross Keyi

Home of James Trezevant 98

Southampton Court House IJJ^

Southampton Jail 1^*

Portrait of Mr. Collin Kitchen ^^f

Tree Under Which Nat Turner Was Hung llo

Place of Burial of Insurgent Negroes li'>

Preface

This attempt to separate truth from fiction has been exceedingly difficult, owing to the numerous misrepresentations and exaggerations which have grown up about the subject. I have studied slavery, slave legislation, and the condition of the negro in every phase that might throw light upon slave insurrections. Citizens of all classes, former slaves as well as masters, have been interviewed. The scenes of this and other insurrections have been visited in company with persons thoroughly acquainted with the country and with the facts and conditions under which they occurred. Among those interviewed were members of every family that suffered at the hands of the Southampton insurgents. Persons who had guarded the prisoners and seen them executed, relatives of Nat Turner, Hark Travis, Nelson Williams, Jeff. Edwards, and other negroes who had known the insurgents personally and labored with them, all furnished me information. These oral traditions I have endeavored to verify by comparison with each other, with official letters, proceedings of legislatures, county records, proceedings of county and superior courts, and other historical sources.

The map of Southampton county has been compiled from data in the Agricultural Handbook of Virginia and from personal investigation. I went several times carefully over the route traversed by the blacks, and, as far

8 PREFACE.

as possible, took note of the general directions and places in detail. Still, owing to want of adequate appliances, it was impossible to mark accuratelj^ every distance.

The thanks of the author are due to Col. Robert A. Brock, Prof. Frank P. Brent, and Mr. W. G. Stanard for valuable assistance during his researches in the Virginia State Library and the Virginia Historical Society. It is impossible to mention here the many persons, both white and colored, who, by their interest in my undertaking, have rendered it less burdensome.^ But it is both a pleasure and a duty to acknowledge my obligations to my friends, Messrs. W. S. Francis and B. P. Woodard, who accompanied me in my journeys and rendered me distinct service in securing a better knowledge of Southampton county and the illustrations of this book. I wish also to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. J. C. Ballagh, of the Johns Hopkins University, for important suggestions. W. S. D.

Johns Hopkins University, January, 1900, iSee Appendix B.

THE SOUTHAMPTON INSURRECTION.

Chapter I. Revived Importance Of Slaa'ery

The third and last period into which the history of slavery in Virginia may be divided extends from 1830 to 1865. This is the period during which the nation was welded into a composite whole, the States retaining their identity, but the Union becoming one and inseparable. This is well illustrated in national matters, such as the Independent Treasury Act. An industrial revolution took place, fostered by an era of most important inventions, and there arose in economics and politics some of the most momentous questions which have ever confronted the United States of America. Nor was the Slave Section a laggard in the general progress. In education, politics, and industry the South took the first stand. The first steam locomotive in America was run over a short road built from Charleston to Augusta, through the rice and cotton fields of South Carolina and Georgia, while the second one started from Baltimore over the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. Both were in that section of the country where slavery existed. Also, the first message by the magnetic telegraph was sent, in 1844, from Baltimore to Washington, and this invention was the basis of the great network of submarine telegraphs which now encircle the world. The first steamer, the "Savannah," sailed across the Atlantic from Savannah, Georgia. These, together with other inventions which improved the means of communication, served to bring men closer together, and connected Europe and America more closely than

) Richmond and New York had formerly been. It was a natural consequence of this development that the great importance of the United States should be so impressed upon the world that all nations desired her friendship and alliance, and, reversely, that the events of the outside world should make a marked impression on America.

The Administration of Andrew Jackson was the landmark of this period, a time of re-formation, when the spoils system was introduced permanently to demoralize politics, and when all parties forgot the good of the whole country in their sectional differences. Fully conscious of this fact, in 1835 a committee of the Senate, with Mr. Calhoun as chairman, said the spoils system was as perfect a scheme as could be desired for enlarging the power of patronage, destroying love of country, and substituting a spirit of subserviency and man-worship, encouraging vice and discouraging virtue, preparing for the subversion of liberty and the establishment of despotism. "His Presidency," says Woodrow Wilson of Jackson, "was a time of riot and of industrial revolt, of bawling turbulence in many quarters, and of disregard for law; and it has been said that the mob took its cue from the example of arbitrary temperament set them by the President."^ For the first forty years of our National Government the ablest and most conscientious men of both parties were the candidates for office, but since 1830 the grade of men holding office, if we except Webster, Calhoun, Clay and a few others, has by no means represented the highest moral and intellectual sentiment and force of the country. Particularly was the truth of this shown by the events of the period between 1856 and 1865.^ Through improved means of communication, material and intellectual — especially the improved postal service and

iDivision and Reunion, p. 115.

-BrycB, Ainerican Commonwealth, vol. II., p. 37.

cheap newspapers — these less superior men were more easily rendered the mere puppets of a public sentiment, supported by unreflecting masses. Such false sentiment, encouraged by scheming politicians, gradually forced the country into the most useless and bloody controversy recorded in history, which was inevitable only in the absence of a broad patriotism and patience.

This new democracy was made doubly important by the fact that at the beginning of the period a property qualification for voting, both in Europe and America, had been abolished and a general tendency to universal suffrage introduced. In 1830 Charles X. of France was successfully dethroned and forced by the people, in spite of the bravery of the Royal Guards and the Swiss, to abdicate in favor of a plain and simple King of the People — Louis Philippe — who accepted a charter imposed upon him by the Deputies. How different the time of Louis XVin., who granted a charter in 1815 apparently only as an act of grace! So, further under Louis Philippe the abolition of heredity in the peerage and of the censorship of journals were accomplished, the suffrage extended, and religious toleration procured. This awakening and revolution spread to all Europe. The aristocratic government fell in Switzerland; liberal innovations were established in Germany; Italy was violently agitated; Belgium separated from Holland; the Spanish Refugees wished to attempt a revolution in their own country, and England forced the Tories to grant the Reform Bill, so nobly advocated by William Cobbet, Francis Place, and Joseph Hume. England had already, in 1828, repealed the Corporation and the Test Acts and emancipated the Catholics. Even Africa and Asia felt the mighty wave of reform, and Mohammed Ali, the "Peter the Great" of Egypt, did much toward centralizing his government and suppressing the slave-trade. Mrs. Latimer says:

"Some thousands of tlie fellaheen, 'disgusted with the endless and systematic exactions of the Egyptian Government, crossed the deserts which separated Africa from Asia, and sought refuge in the territory of the Pasha of Acre.' This was in 1831, when Europe was too much interested in its own revolutions to pay much attention to the affairs of the East."^

Charles Greville graphically describes the state of affairs in Europe, when he says: "I never remember days like these, nor read of such, — the tenor and lively expectation that prevails, and the way in which people's mind-s are turned backward and forward from France to Ireland, then range exclusively from Poland to Piedmont, and fix again on the burnings, riots, and executions that are going on in England."^

Amidst all of this excitement the slaves were not forgotten. In 1841 the Kingdom of France recognized the right of visitation on the part of England for the repression of the slave trade, but it excited so much opposition that the Chamber forced the Ministers to cancel the treaty. In 1848, however, when the world was again aroused by another French revolution, a decree was signed emancipating the blacks in all the colonies of France. Socialistic doctrines were triumphant everywhere in Europe, and their influence upon America was but increased by the leverage of distance. Immediate contact would have aroused to opposition the "American Party." In the United States there was a general democratic upheaval, "a willful self-assertion of a masterful people which gave to the national spirit its first self-reliant expression of resolution and of consentaneous power,"^ which exhibited its evils in the first National Conventions of 1831 and

lEurope iu Africa in tiie Nineteenth Century, p. 35.

2E. W. Latimer, France in the Nineteenth Century, p. 35.

sWilson, Division and Reunion, p. 115.

1832, the creatures of pure voluntary effort. Even the women took up the cue, and spinsteps preached an inveterate crusade against the opposition of the other sex. So great was the agitation that not even the President and his Cabinet could agree with each other, and the latter, as well as the Vice-President, resigned in 1831. Everything was changing, both society and politics, and the agitation did not cease until it w^as all centred on slavery. The tariff had, previous to this period and at its beginning, agitated the Union, and in 1832 came near wrecking it, when Congress empowered the President to use the Army and Navy in forcing the collection of tariffs in South Carolina, in accordance with the acts of 1828 and 1832, which she had declared unconstitutional and "Null" and "Void.'- But the crisis was avoided by a reduction of the tariff, and henceforth the field was cleared for the discussion of the slavery question.

The unrest in this political field found its cause and counterpart in that of the social and economic. There was a general revival of the study of economics. In all parts of the United States publishing houses were established, such as the Georgetown Press; and the works of Adam Smith, Malthus, RicaPdo, Carlyle, Ruskin, and of other students of social and economic conditions were issued. And now for the first time important publications of native Americans began to appear. Consequently, much of their attention was devoted to the cause of internal improvements, the sale of the public lands, and other economic questions, which dominated politics in our national history and probably did more to increase the power of the National Government than any other factors in our development. This result was largely brought about by the new States, which, possessed of the strongest democratic spirit, were eager for the undertaking of public improvements by the National Government, as, on account of their poverty and restricted revenue, they were unable to undertake them on an extended scale without incuiTing a public debt. Jefferson and others had advanced like views, but were successfully opposed until 1823, when the first appropriation for harbor improvements was passed.^ Jackson checked the movement, but the work was continued by distributing to the States surplus revenue for this purpose. In this period then was begun a work both by the national and State governments which resulted in great material advancement in the expansion of both agriculture and commerce.

The method of State initiative in these matters was more in accord with the States' Rights principles to which ^^irginia and the South remained firmly attached. Though, violently agitated by the slavery question, Virginia still made rapid industrial, social and literary progress, and was in the foremost rank of the States in internal development. She violently opposed the measures of the President in the Nullification Controversy, and her distinguished son, John Randolph, the representative of Virginia sentiment, bitterly denounced the Administration. With her strong conservatism, she finally assumed the position of pacificator, and sent Benjamin Watkins Leigh, one of her most renowned citizens, as a commissioner to South Carolina. The Virginia Commonwealth stood for peace at home and abroad, and no internal dissensions disturbed her own society. Her agriculture was flourishing and internal improvements were advancing on every hand."

iFederalist (Ford's Edition), p. 280.

2At the head of the juov^ement for improremerits was a president and directors of public works. The report of the Public Engineer to this board in December, 1831. was a^^ follows: "For nine years, gentlemen, I have used my best exertions in promoting the cause of internal improvements in the State. While collecting a great mass of local information, I have often reflected' that Virginia did not avail herself immediately of advantages.

Several of these improvements are of especial interest to us. Applications were made to the Legislature in the early part of 1S32 for a charter for a railway from Portsmouth, Virginia, to Weldon, North Carolina, and also for one for the Petersburg Railway. Both of these roads were built a few years later, and now run within a few miles of the scenes of the insurrection of 1831. They form, wth the Norfolk and Western, which was built in the latter part of this period, a triangle having its vertices at Norfolk, Petersburg, and Weldon. Within this triangle lies that part of Southampton county which was desolated by Nat Turner and his followers. The Chowan, Blackwater, Nottaway, and Meherrin rivers, which pass near these scenes, were improved for purposes of intercourse and commerce, and, together with the Three Creek, surround the same portion of Southampton, leaving one narrow passage at Belfield. The Legislature of 1831-32 also investigated the expediency of completing the Dismal Swamp Canal, whidh was considered of great economic advantage to Suffolk and the neighboring districts of Nansemond, Isle of Wight, Southampton and the other counties of the ''Black Belt."

Nor had Virginia neglected her intellectual development. ''The mass of education in Virginia before the Revolution," wrote Mr. Jefferson, "placed her with the

which, without a prophetic spirit, it may be said, will at some future day make the first State in the Union. To those less acquainted with her resources, and who have reflected less on her geographical situation and topographical features, this assertion may appear bold, but time will establish its correctness, when the oircumstances which have hitherto embarrassed her progress shall have been modified; internal improvement itself is one of the means best calculated to effect this purpose." These circumstances were slavery and its necessary encumbrances, but the Legislature, which was in session at this time, took the suggestion of the Public Engineer and passed many bills for internal improvements and general economic progress.

foremost of her sister colonies."^ These words are applicable also to the period of which we write. She had as complete a system of education as the majority of the States. Her university stood at the head of the arch and furnished a most liberal education to representative sons of every State in the Union. Her academies and private schools were excellent, and no educators in secondary schools were better known than Major Stone, of Brunswick; Frederick Coleman, of Concord Academy; Lewis Coleman, of Hanover Academy, and Rev. Peter Nelson, of "Wingfield," Hanover county. This debt was due chiefly to the inspiration and example of her illustrious statesmen, many of whom were still left to direct her energies. The convention called in 1829 to revise the State Constitution was so remarkable in its personnel as to evoke the statement that it was composed of more distinguished men than had ever assembled in any other public body in the United States. Among its members were Madison, Monroe, Marshall, John Randolph, and others who had occupied important positions under the State and Federal Governments.^ Bishop Meade, the great Episcopal clergyman and historian, then in his prime, was one, and another was Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, who, by his charts of the winds and currents, had won from all the crowned heads of Europe and the scientific men of the world the title of "Geographer or Pathfinder of the Seas." Still another, John Mercer Brooke, by his "Deep Sea Sounding Apparatus," which had been suggested by the investigations of Maury, had enabled scientists to ascertain the character of the beds of the great plateau under the ocean between Newfoundland and Ireland. To Maury we are also indebted for the great network of submarine telegraphs, and the commerce of the world owes

■ I

^Randolph, Writings of Jefferson, vol IV, p. 23.

■-'Cooke, History of Virginia, p. 488.

THE SOUTHAMPTON INSURRECTIOX. 17

him an incalculable obligation. Tlie two most valuable general histories of Virginia appeared within the period under discussion — one by Robert E. Howison, in 1847, and the other by Charles Campbell, in 1849. The latter of these is especially valuable as a type of the best State histories. There were also many authors of i'lction, and >yhile Virginia literature of this period may not be of the first rank, yet it is valuable for its respect for good morals and manners and as an indication of her great impulse toward literary development. Nor should we forget the younger line of distinguished soldiers and statesmen, prominent among whom were John Y. Mason, the distinguished Cabinet officer and Minister to France, and Henry A. Wise, the statesman, soldier and author.

[Notwithstanding these wise and patriotic citizens, to whose wisdom and sound judgment, no doubt, Virginia is indebted for the comparative quiet and prosperity which she enjoyed between 1830 and 1865, it would have been a wonderful phenomenon, had no signs of rebellion manifested themselves among the slaves, who had many facilities to learn the general progress of the times, the riots occurring, and the general party discussion in regard to their state of senatude. They, too, favored by the greater leniency of their owners, had advanced in intelligence, morals and manners. This was true, in spite of the unequal working of federal legislation and administration, which gave the majority of benefits to the non-slave holding, and most of the burdens to the slave-holding section. This was the point on which Southern discontent was aroused, and on which it rested until shifted to the dangers threatening slave property,^ so that Madison might well prophetically exclaim, "The visible susceptibility to the contagion of nullification in the Southern States, the sympathy arising from known causes, and the

iBenton, Thirty Years in the United States Senate.

18 ■ THE SOUTHAMPTON INSUBRECTION.

inculcated impressions of a permanent incompatibility of interest between the North and the South, may put it in the power of popular leaders, aspiring to the highest stations, to unite the South on some critical occasion in some course of action of whidh nullification may be the first step, secession the second, and a farewell separation, the last." It is indeed remarkable that there were only two attempts at insurrection during these thirty-live years — the one undertaken by a wild, fanatical negro at the beginning of the period, and the other led by a white fanatic, near its close. And this was the case, though every effort was made, at home and abroad, to cause discontent among Hhe slaves and to incite them to impossible and murderous undertakings.^

Never in the history of slavery, however, was there less danger to owners, more contentment among the slaves themselves, fewer runaways, and greater advantages, social, financial, and political, gained from this institution. This was due partly to the fact that, though the country was filled with internal strife, the Union was gradually assuming the importance which had previously been held by the individual States. After the end of the war of 1812, which

iThus, an Englishman, writing at the time, says that England's philanthropic zeal for the suppression of the slave trade covered their jealousy of the American commerce in Jamaica and in the Indian archipelago; that he regretted the hostile feeling growing up in England against America, all caused by the bitter harangues of American abolitionists, delegates from the American Anti-Slavery party; that Englishmen believed all these things coming from Americans, and truly longed for war on the boundary question, in order to hurl upon the slave States thousands of colored troops from Jamaica, and desti'oy the whole Union by a servile war.

William L. Garrison, tJie representiitive of the Anti-Slave Society, founded January 6, 1832. went to England in 1833, and was the means of the loss of all future influence of the American Colonization Society among the English Abolitionists.— Sehouler's History of the United States, vol. IV., p. 215.

,1 lit- m m m, mn,\^ '"^"m Jieii* tit u, tfu% i^ >it ,,

^m. M « iii-'Dili J4. iiii. Mu. ^ ik

to iit >b^ t ii NORFOLK

'Oru/hmonds^ to

terminated our vital interest in European politics, that in domestic political questions became intense, and with these questions the introduction of direct foreign influence disappeared, very quickly followed by a reaction, to the extreme of intense dread of foreign influence. The people had learned to bear with the harangues of foreigners and to keep up with the course of foreign events, which had a marked influence on all classes of citizens, white and black, but direct foreign interference in governmental affairs was resented. The chief expression of this feeling was the ''American," or "Know Nothing" party, which began about 1835, and, with varying power, manifested itself until the outbreak of the war between the States.^ This, then, was a period of indirect foreign influence, When the pen was used instead of the sword, and foreigners worked through negro leaders and fanatics, instead of personal leadership. Consequently their personal influence could not be so strongly felt. Seeing that stealth was necessary, the slaves were no longer able to be deluded to such an extent by the hope of foreign aid, and grew to have more love for and faith in, the country which, apparently, they began to look upon as their native land. This was, however, not in all things the most fortunate period in Virginia history, for the reason that much of her best talent was directed against the attacks of the abolitionists, instead of being devoted to more profitable undertakings. The event which aroused that talent to the consideration of the slavery question more than any other, in that it involved grave danger to the slaves as well as to the State, was the Southampton insurrection of 1831.

Chapter II. The Insurrection

DESCRIPTION OF SOUTHAMPTON COUNTY.—

Southampton county lies in the southeastern corner of Virginia, in what is known, from its large negro population, as the "Black Belt," one hundred and fifty miles south of thy National Capital, ^Vashington. It was a part of "Warrasqueake," the Indian name for that region known as Smith's Hundred, one of the original shires into which Virginia was divided in 1634, extending from the James River on the northeast to North Carolina on the southwest. The name of this district was changed to Isle of Wight Plantation in 1637, and, as by 1748 the population had become too numerous and its area too extensive for one county, it was divided and that portion west of the Blackwater River was called Southampton.^

This county can be taken as representative of eastern Carolina and Virginia, its inhabitants being characterized by the chivalrous spirit of the "Old North State," as well as by the justly famed Virginia hospitality and family pride. The relation between the two States is well embodied in the words of Governor James Barbour, of Virginia, to Captain Calvin Jones, of Raleigh, North Carolina: "We turn with disgust and horror from the foul blot in the characters of men and dwell with peculiar complacency upon your generous friendship, so ennobling to our nature, enhanced by the honorable mention you make of the aid furnished you by our fathers in the hour of your distress, and the ac-

iln 17.56 Governox' Dinwiddle, in a list of tithables sent the Lords of Trade, rates the population of Southampton at 973 whites and 1,036 blacljs, a population greater than that of the Isle of Wigtit in the same list.

knowledgment that the commingled blood of Virginia and North Carolina is the current of our connection." These words, written July 15, 1813, refer to the degrading deeds of the British troops in enticing away the slaves, inciting them to rebellion, and other acts of depredation, but they express the tie that has ever bound and will continue to bind together Virginia and North Carolina. The soil of ,the county is rich and the climate delightful, the two, with other circumstances, combining to make a noble, industrious, and liberty-loving population, well typifying the best Southern character. These people were alive to the progressive spirit of the age. Everywhere roads were being constructed and lands cleared. In the words of a most worthy citizen, who lived during this period: "Never were the people so progressive as between the year 1830 and the Civil War." Mr. James W. Parker said he was making money as rapidly as he cared to until the insurrection came along to interrupt him. For several years this delayed the progress of a portion of the county, and many citizens, becoming discouraged at the large destruction of property and life, sought other homes, but interest soon revived, and there was more effective energy and development than ever.^

Special attention was given to education. Schools and academies existed in great numbers. The Milltield Academy had been established in 1790 by a special act of the General Assembly, which empowered Benjamin Blunt and others to raise by lottery^ money for this purpose. At the home of Mr. Thomas Pretlow there was an academy and another at Mr. James Parker's, both of

iThe settlement of Indians in the county left their name in the "Indian words" on Nottoway River. Their lands were protected, and a special board of such citizens as James Trezevant, Benjamin Blunt, and William Urquhart, was appointed to look after their interests and education.

2This was the favorite means of raising money for internal improvements.

whicli were progressiye, and at wMcli were educated such public-spirited men as Capt, J. J. Darden and Gen. George H. Thomas. There were flourishing schools at Waller's and Mr. Nat Francis's. The Drewrysville Female Academy educated true Virginia women. The influence of the latter still lives in some of the model mothers and wives of the county. In this county were born and lived some of the most noted characters connected with the history of America, such as John Y. Mason, the statesman; George H. Thomas,^ the soldier; William Mahone, the famous Virginia railroad president. Senator, and politician. Such were the citizens of 1831 and the years preceding 1865. The home of such progress, the mother of such men, and the scene of Nat Turner's massacre, Southampton is interesting as one of the historic counties of the United States.