not be passed upon him, replied he had nothing further
than he had communicated to Mr. Gray. Given under
our hands and seals at Jerusalem, this 5th day of
November, 1831.
Jeremiah
Cobb, [Seal.]
Thomas
Pretlow, [Seal.]
James
W. Parker, [Seal.]
Carr
Bowers, [Seal.]
Samuel
B. Hines, [Seal.]
Orris
A. Browne, [Seal.]
State of Virginia, Southampton County, to wit:
I, James Rochelle, Clerk of the County Court of Southampton
in the State of Virginia, do hereby certify, that
Jeremiah Cobb, Thomas Pretlow, James W. Parker, Carr
Bowers, Samuel B. Hines, and Orris A. Browne, esqr’s
are acting Justices of the Peace, in and for the County
aforesaid, and were members of the Court which convened
at Jerusalem, on Saturday the 5th day of November,
1831, for the trial of Nat alias Nat Turner,
a negro slave, late the property of Putnam Moore, deceased,
who was tried and convicted, as an insurgent in the
late insurrection in the county of Southampton aforesaid,
and that full faith and credit are due, and ought
to be given to their acts as Justices of the peace
aforesaid.
In
testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my
hand
and caused the seal of the Court
[Seal.]
aforesaid, to be affixed this 5th day of
November,
1831.
James
Rochelle, C.S.C.C.
Agreeable to his own appointment, on the evening he
was committed to prison, with permission of the jailer,
I visited NAT on Tuesday the 1st November, when, without
being questioned at all, he commenced his narrative
in the following words:—
Sir,—You have asked me to give a history
of the motives which induced me to undertake the late
insurrection, as you call it—To do so I
must go back to the days of my infancy, and even before
I was born. I was thirty-one years of age the
2d of October last, and born the property of Benj.
Turner, of this county. In my childhood a circumstance
occurred which made an indelible impression on my
mind, and laid the ground work of that enthusiasm,
which has terminated so fatally to many, both white
and black, and for which I am about to atone at the
gallows. It is here necessary to relate this
circumstance—trifling as it may seem, it
was the commencement of that belief which has grown
with time, and even now, sir, in this dungeon, helpless
and forsaken as I am, I cannot divest myself of.
