American Beacon (Norfolk, Virginia),

September 9, 1831

FROM SOUTHAMPTON

A friend has politely furnished us with the following extract of a letter received yesterday from Suffolk,  dated 7th inst.

                            “I have just returned from Jerusalem. Seventeen of the insurgents have

                been tried up to Monday evening, and sixteen of the number condemned to be

                hanged. Two were hung at 12 o’clock on Monday. Friday (this day) is appointed as

                the time for the execution of several others. The only one going at large is the ring                   leader, Nat. All are at a loss to know where he has dropped to.”

        We understand… that later dispatches have been received by the Governor from Southampton—not a word is said about Nat Turner.—They state tthat Bill Artis (the only free man of color who was supposed to be actively engaged in the conspiracy) has been found dead—supposed to have killed himself, from the circumstances of a pistol lying at his side and a ball discovered in his body.—They also state that eight more of the prisoners [p. 76] have been convicted—of whom 6 are to be executed on Friday, and 2 on Monday next. This number, added to the four previously convicted, and two of whom were executed on Monday last, make twelve.

From Henry Irving Tragle, The Southampton Slave Revolt of 1831: A Compilation of Source Material (Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1971), pp. 75-76.