hment. Nat has survived
all his followers, and the gallows will speedily close his career. His
own account of the conspiracy is submitted to the public, without
comment. It reads an awful, and it is hoped, a useful lesson, as to the
operations of a mind like his, endeavoring to grapple with things beyond
its reach. How it first became bewildered and confounded, and finally
corrupted and led to the conception and perpetration of the most
atrocious and heart-rending deeds. It is calculated also to demonstrate
the policy of our laws in restraint of this class of our population,
and to induce all those entrusted with their execution, as well as our
citizens generally, to see that they are strictly and rigidly enforced.
Each particular community should look to its own safety, whilst the
general guardians of the laws, keep a watchful eye over all. If Nat's
statements can be relied on, the insurrection in this county was
entirely local, and his designs confided but to a few, and these in his
immediate vicinity. It was not instigated by motives of revenge or
sudden anger, but the results of long deliberation, and a settled
purpose of mind. The offspring of gloomy fanaticism, acting upon
materials but too well prepared for such impressions. It will be long
remembered in the annals of our country, and many a mother as she
presses her infant darling to her bosom, will shudder at the
recollection of Nat Turner, and his band of ferocious miscreants.

Believing the following narrative, by removing doubts and conjectures
from the public mind which otherwise must have remained, would give
general satisfaction, it is respectfully submitted to the public by
their ob't serv't,

T.R. GRAY.
_Jerusalem, Southampton, Va. Nov. 5, 1831._

We the undersigned, members of the Court convened at Jerusalem, on
Saturday, the 5th day of Nov. 1831, for the trial of Nat, _alias_ Nat
Turner, a negro slave, late the property of Putnam Moore, deceased, do
hereby certify, that the confessions of Nat, to Thomas R. Gray, was read
to him in our presence, and that Nat acknowledged the same to be full,
free, and voluntary; and that furthermore, when called upon by the
presiding Magistrate of the Court, to state if he had any thing to say,
why sentence of death should not be passed upon him, replied he had
nothing further than he had communicated to Mr. Gray. Given under our
hands and seals at Jerusal