Alexandria (Virginia) Gazette,

September 1831

(exact date unknown)

        Our Northern bretheren deserve our thanks for their uniform course during the excitement consequent upon the late disturbances in Virginia and North Carolina. We have noticed with pleasure the tone of the newspapers and the remarks of the editors. They display nothing like cant or fanaticism. They talk calmly, sensibly, like men—like friends. As for example, the New York American says:

        We detest slavery—we have striven, and ever shall strive against its extenuation in these United States; but where it exists, and without any fault of those who are cursed with it, we would go to the utmost lengths to sustain the rights and safety of those whom circumstances have placed in the relation of masters. Such, too, is, we are sure, the feeling of all sound thinking men in the free States; and upon the slightest intimation that they are required, arms, money, men, will be poured forth in profusion for the defense of our Southern bretheren.

        Let them not doubt this. Would to God the infatuated being who have thus broken out in mad revolt, that must issue in such bloody retribution upon themselves, could be make equally sensible, that in such a cause the white population of the Union is bonded against them.

The editor of the Telegraph, speaking on this subject says:

We are grateful to have it in our power to assure our Southern friends, that, during a late excursion to New Haven, we had an opportunity of conversing with many of the citizens of the Northern States, and that we heard but one opinion, and that was of unqualified condemnation of the fanaticism of which we speak. The spirit of the time rebukes discord, disorders and disunion. We believe that a [p. 89] reaction—a powerful reaction—of public sentiment had commenced, which will compel demagogues and political leaders to look for promotion in conciliation, instead of local feeling and sectional prejudice.

Henry Irving Tragle, The Southampton Slave Revolt of 1831: A Compilation of Source Material (Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1971), 88-89.