The Richmond Enquirer,

October 7, 1831

        A meeting of the citizens in Upperville and vicinity in Fauquier County, was held on the 19th inst. (Dr. B. Rist in the Chair, and Dr. T.W. Smith, Secty.) for the purpose of taking into consideration the late disasters of Southampton and North Carolina. They came to a resolution “that the large and frequent meetings of the slaves in this neighborhood and other parts of the county (some of them for purposes unknown to us) call for more vigilance on our part than has hitherto been observed—and although we flatter ourselves we have at present but little to apprehend, we presume the unfortunate inhabitants of the places above mentioned were equally unconscious of danger until the moment when the fatal tragedy commenced. The increasing boldness and insolence of the negroes generally of late we consider also as another reason why our attention should be drawn towards them.” They therefore organized themselves into light companies of patrols—and resolved that each member of the association should keep in constant readiness a musket or fowling piece—and recommended to the [p. 119] Commandants of the Regiments and magistrates throughout the County, and the Commonwealth, to carry into immediate effect every part of the Patrol Law.

Henry Irving Tragle, The Southampton Insurrection of 1831: A Compilation of Source Material (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1971), 118-119.