a full-blooded
negro, who had been born and brought up a slave. He had heard the crack
of the driver's whip, and seen the warm blood streaming from the negro's
body. He had witnessed the separation of parents from children, and was
made aware, by too many proofs, that the slave could expect no justice
from the hands of the slave-owner. The name of this man was Nat Turner.
He was a preacher amongst the negroes, distinguished for his eloquence,
respected by the whites, loved and venerated by the negroes. On the
discovery of the plan for the outbreak, Turner fled to the swamps,
followed by those who had joined in the insurrection.

Here the revolted negroes numbered some hundreds, and for a time bade
defiance to their oppressors. The Dismal Swamps cover many thousand
acres of wild land, and a dense forest, with wild animals and insects
such as are unknown in any other part of Virginia. Here runaway negroes
usually seek a hiding-place, and some have been known to reside here for
years. The revolters were joined by one of these. He was a large, tall,
full-blooded negro, with a stern and savage countenance; the marks on
his face showed that he was from one of the barbarous tribes in Africa,
and claimed that country as his native land. His only covering was
a girdle around his loins, made of skins of wild beasts which he had
killed. His only token of authority among those that he led was a pair
of epaulettes, made of the tail of a fox, and tied to his shoulder by a
cord. Brought from the coast of Africa, when only fifteen years of age,
to the island of Cuba, he was smuggled from thence into Virginia. He had
been two years in the swamps, and considered it his future home. He had
met a negro woman, who was also a runaway, and, after the fashion of his
native land, had gone through the process of oiling her, as the marriage
ceremony. They had built a cave on a rising mound in the swamp, and
this was their home. This man's name was Picquilo. His only weapon was
a sword made from a scythe which he had stolen from a neighboring
plantation. His dress, his character, his manners, and his mode of
fighting were all in keeping with the early training he had received in
the land of his birth. He moved about with the activity of a cat, and
neither the thickness of the trees nor the depth of the water could stop
him. He was a bold, turbulent spirit; and, from motives of revenge, he
imbrued his hands in the blood of all the whites he could m