| [56] | The Virginian History of African Colonization, Slaughter, p. 55. |
VIII
The Movement in the Virginia Legislature of 1832
to Abolish Slavery in the State
The Southampton Insurrection, which occurred in August, 1831, was one of those untoward incidents which so often marked the history of slavery. Under the leadership of one Nat Turner, a negro preacher, of some education, who felt that he had been called of God to deliver his race from bondage, the negroes attacked the whites at night and before the assault could be suppressed fifty-seven whites, principally women and children, had been killed. This deplorable event assumed an even more portentous aspect when it was realized that the leader was a slave to whom the privilege of education had been accorded and that one of his lieutenants was a free negro. In addition there existed a widespread belief among the whites that influences and instigations from without the state were responsible for the insurrection.
The General Assembly of Virginia met in regular session in December, 1831, and the effect upon the popular mind of this tragic occurrence was evidenced in the numerous petitions presented praying for the removal beyond the state of all free negroes, or the enactment of such laws as should provide for the abolition of slavery. The institution itself, the feasibility of its abolition, the status of the free negroes, the danger to the state from their presence, were thus brought before the Legislature. It was a body containing many able men but elected without reference to this great subject, and with no previous interchange of views or formulation of plans among the advocates of reform. The discussions which followed were more notable for the fierce arraignment of the institution than for the presentation of practical plans for its abolition.
Henry Wilson, in his Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, says of this discussion:
"It was one of the ablest, most eloquent and brilliant debates that ever took place in the Legislature of any of the states. Most of those who participated in it were young and rising men who afterward achieved high positions and commanding influence."[[57]]
Mr. Ballagh records that: