of the Nat Turner
insurrection which swept off fifty-seven persons within a few hours.
In purpose the two episodes agree. They both aim at the liberation of
the slave; both were led by fanatics, the reflex production of the
cruelty of slavery, and both ended in the melancholy death of their
heroic leaders. Turner's was the insurrection of the slave and was not
free from the mad violence of revenge; Brown's was the insurrection of
the friend of the slave, and was governed by the high and noble
purpose of freedom. The insurrections of Denmark Vesey in South
Carolina, in 1822, and of Nat Turner, in Virginia, in 1831, show
conclusively that the Negro slave possessed the courage, the cunning,
the secretiveness and the intelligence to fight for his freedom.
These two attempts were sufficiently broad and intelligent, when taken
into consideration with the enforced ignorance of the slave, to prove
the Negro even in his forlorn condition capable of daring great
things. Of the probable thousands who were engaged in the Denmark
Vesey insurrection, only fifteen were convicted, and these died
heroically without revealing anything connected with the plot.
Forty-three years later I met the son of Denmark Vesey, who rejoiced
in the efforts of his noble father, and regarded his death on the
gallows as a holy sacrifice to the cause of freedom. Turner describes
his fight as follows: "The white men, eighteen in number, approached
us to about one hundred yards, when one of them fired, and I
discovered about half of them retreating. I then ordered my men to
fire and rush on them. The few remaining stood their ground until we
approached within fifty yards, when they fired and retreated. We
pursued and overtook some of them whom we thought we left dead. After
pursuing them about two hundred yards, and rising a little hill, I
discovered they were met by another party, and had halted and were
reloading their guns. Thinking that those who retreated first and the
party who fired on us at fifty or sixty yards distant had all only
fallen back to meet others with ammunition, as I saw them reloading
their guns, and more coming up than I saw at first, and several of my
bravest men being wounded, the others became panic struck and
scattered over the field. The white men pursued and fired on us
several times. Hark had his horse shot under him, and I caught another
for him that was running by me; five or six of my men were wounded,
but none left on the fi