I am in earnest--I will not
equivocate--I will not excuse--I will not retract a single inch--and I
will be heard!"

While Garrison's language was constantly such as to arouse passion to
the boiling point, he was always in theory a supporter of peace, opposed
to war under any conditions, and even to resistance of force by force.
But in 1829 there appeared a pamphlet of a different tenor; an
_Appeal_, by Walker, a Boston negro, addressed directly to the slaves.
It was a fiery recital of their wrongs and an incitement to forcible
redress. Its appearance in the South caused great excitement. The
Governors of Virginia and Georgia sent special messages to their
Legislatures about it. Garrison wrote of it, in the _Genius_: "It
breathes the most impassioned and determined spirit. We deprecate its
publication, though we cannot but wonder at the bravery and intelligence
of its author." Garrison's biographers--his sons--speak of Walker as "a
sort of John the Baptist to the new anti-slavery dispensation." It was
well for the Baptist that his head was out of Herod's reach. The Georgia
Legislature passed in a single day a bill forbidding the entry of free
negroes into the State, and making "the circulation of pamphlets of evil
tendency among our domestics" a capital offense.

Large as these events loom in the retrospect, they were comparatively
little noticed in their time. Virginia held in 1830 a convention for the
revision of her constitution; among its members were Madison, Monroe,
and Randolph; and emancipation was not even mentioned. Jefferson was
dead, and the spirit of Jefferson seemed dead. Then the unexpected
happened. There was a negro preacher, a slave named Nat Turner. He was a
man of slight figure, reputed among his people a sort of prophet,
addicted to visions and rhapsodies. He planned in 1831 an uprising of
the slaves. He circulated among them a document written in blood, with
cabalistic figures, and pictures of the sun and a crucifix. One night he
and a group of companions set out on their revolt. Others joined them
voluntarily or by impressment till they numbered forty. They began by
killing Turner's master and his family; then they killed a lady and her
ten children; they attacked a girls' boarding-school and killed all the
inmates. Houses stood open and unguarded, and most of the white men were
away at a camp-meeting. From Sunday night till Monday noon the band went
on its way unchecked, and killed sixty persons