Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1866-04-17
SOUTHAMPTON, April II, 1866.

SOUTHAMPTON, April IL, 1866.
To the Editor of the Wing:
Every section has its own history, and its
people something of which to be proud-some
relic of antiquity to contribute to the common
stock; some share, perchance, in the lame OF
the great or the renown Of the learned. The
very name of the river which wends its way
through this country is suggestive. On its
banks, at a comparatively recent date, might
be seen the forms of those swarthy sons OF the
forest to whom civilization seemed a curse
rather than blessing. To-day, the stranger
is pointed to the "Indian Woods" as it is
termed. It is not improbable that traces of a
fort, built by the colonial settlers for defensive
purposes, may yet be seen in this county near
the Meherrin River. Southampton may boast,
too, of having produced such men as Mason
and Malone, and the lamented Major Gillette,
than whom l have not known more devoted
patriot and consistent christian gentleman.
This county has, however, history peculiar
to itself-an unenviable distinction-and is
better known as the place of the insurrection
of 1881. Almost every one has heard some
thing of the Southampton insurrectiOn."
The "reverend chronicler," alike of that which
is good or noble and bad or discreditable to
humanity, has not been silent on this subject {,
and the novelist has blended its revolving de-
tails with the most interesting romance. But
an interest never before known is felt when we
visit the neighborhood where the terrible ira
gedy was enacted, and talk with the children
and relatives of those who fell by the hands of
the assassins. Four years of bloody war, with
its attendant anxieties and extremes of hope
and fear, have not been sufficient to erase the
impressions made in childhood and youth,
when ffty-ive innocent persons gave up their
lives to satisfy the insatiate demands of fanati-
cism. More than one story is told to illustrate
the faithfulness and devotion Of those blacks
who took no part in revolt, and seemed anxious
only to secure the safety of their masters. 1t
will be remembered, perhaps, that in 1861,
when the war spirit was raging high, the New
York Tribune mentioned this as the place Of
all others the most inviting in which to begin
the work of melting the slaves to the perform
ance of the most barbarous deeds upon their
masters and their families, since the insurrec-
tionary spirit had been manifested to greater
extent here than elsewhere. The well-merited
punishment of the leaders of the Instruction
of 1881 does not seem, however, to have been
without its effect.
But all is now changed. Slavery, the bone
of contention, the unmitigated evil" has
ceased to exist. The dominant party claims
the credit of having "taken away the foul blot
from the fair escutcheon of the Union," and
the name of slaveowner is to be handed down
to posterity with all the opprObious epithets
which have been heaped upon it during the
last quarter of century by persons them
selves the children of slaveowners. While
thousands at the South have been anxiously
seeking the solution of the vexed questions
having reference to the slave, for whose condi-
ton they were no more responsible than others,
fanaticism has denied them the commonest
feelings of humanity, and, by officious inter-
ventiou, checked the progress of liberal views
and blocked up the approaches to emancipa-
ton. Protected in their rights by the supreme
law of the land, they could not present the
appearance of yielding to the unjust and unau-
thorized demands of those who saw fit to can
onize Nat. Turner and John Brown. They
claimed the right to do as others had DONE
The anvil was not known till the hammer was
found. The abolition of slavery the people of
the South accept as a fixed fact, and though
they may have deemed Immediate emancipa-
ton injurious and inexpedient, believe they
will rejoice if it shall be found to improve the
condition of the colored race. If they have
been mistaken in their opinions, they will not
be sorry to see them overthrown. They may
vet come to look upon all this as the workings
of mysterious Providence, but so far as the
guilt is concerned, if guilt there was, they will
never say to the people Of the North, Thou
art holier than l." They look to the future to
do them that justice which, in the heat of ex.
element and the reign of passion, they are now
denied. L.