The Washington times., 1901-12-29
THE TIMES, WASHINGTON. SUNDAY. DECEMBER % 1901.

| tending to be engaged in the same hui
| maniiarian mission. learned all his plans
| and kept their partners along the border
! informed as to the doings of the real
| abolitionist," whose proselytes were
| picked up as fast as they reached the
! border
Nevertheless there were times when
| the slaves we're as shrewd as those who
were getting rich Off Of them. Captain
Marbnry, of this place had a negro body
lervant named John Dugan, whom ne took
with him on trip to England. Reaching
England Ducan toek advantage of the
laws of the country TO tell his master
that he was no longer a slave and tha t
he did not propose to return. Captain
Marhury was fertile in expedients and
told John that if he would return he would
draw up an instrument Of manumisson
then and there. To. this John agreed. ana
the papers which Captain Marbury in
tended to destroy before he reached New
York. were duly executed. But John was
too shrewd for the captain. Securing
possession of his manumission papers, he
sent them to the agent of some abolition
society on vessel that sailed several
DAYS before the one ON which he and Cap
tain Marbury sailed, so that when they
reached New York and the latter asked
John for his papers, saying that he wished
to have them witnessed and attested. he
was disagreeably surprised to discover
that after paying The 1egrO's passage
across the Atlantic, the latter had, in the
end. outwitted him"
The mt Turner Insurrection.
Colonel Webster has a very vivid rec
objection of the Nat Turner uprising, bet
ter known as Mats insurrection," which
took place in Virginia along about 1880
Strange 10 say, this uprising is part of
American history that today is almost
forgotten. II is not to be found in any OF
the American histories, except one or two,
wherein 1t appears as a brief footnote.
and it is missing even in Mr.. Spears
excellent work. THE American Slave
Trade" Colonel webster's version of the
affair is as follows:
About 1880 a certain planter in south
ern Virginia had a negro house servant
named Nat Turner. whom his children
had "a ght to read In the course of his
reading Nat fell in with an abolition or
gan that so inflamed his mind that he
proceeded at once TO plot an insurrection
of the slaves and a general uprising OF
negroes all over the State. Communicate
ing his designs to the negroes on the
plantations for miles around. he arranged
for a big barbecue on a certain day at
a point in the woods distant from any
farm house. When the day came the ne
Erces gathered to the number Of 200 or
more. armed with every variety Of weapon
from guns to hatchets and pitchforks.
AT a signal from Turner these negroes
sailed forth, falling on the unsuspecting
whites. sparing neither age nor sex. At
one house they killed all the inmates ex-
cept a baby. which Turner happened to
overlook, and which he remembered after
the mob left. He ordered one Of his men
"a negro named Hawkins-to go back and
kill the infant. This Hawkins did be-
heading the child with the only weapon
he had-a hatchet.
$50 sudden and unexpected was this on
slaught that the negroes killed sixty
whites before the latter took the alarm.
When the alarm began spreading, thirty
whites armed themselves and started to
meet the negroes, while runners were