Of fifty-three Negroes arraigned in connection with the insurrection “seventeen were executed and twelve transported.  The rest were discharged, except ... four free Negroes sent on to the Superior Court.  Three of the four were executed.” [1] Such figures as these, however, give no conception of the number of those who lost their lives in connection with the insurrection.  In general, if slaves were convicted by legal process and executed or transported, or if they escaped before trial, they were paid for by the commonwealth; if killed, they were not paid for, and a man like Phipps might naturally desire to protect his prisoner in order to get his reward.  In spite of this, the Negroes were slaughtered without trial and sometimes under circumstances of the greatest barbarity.  One man proudly boasted that he had killed between ten and fifteen.  A party went from Richmond with the intention of killing every Negro in Southampton County.  Approaching the cabin of a free Negro they asked, “Is this Southampton County?” “Yes, sir,” came the reply, “you have just crossed the line by yonder tree.”  They shot him dead and rode on.  In general the period was one of terror, with voluntary patrols, frequently drunk, going in all directions.  These men tortured, burned, or maimed the Negroes practically at will.  Said one old woman [2] of them:  “The patrols were low drunken whites, and in Nat’s time, if they heard any of the colored folks prayin’ or singin’ a hymn, they would fall upon ’em and abuse ’em, and sometimes kill ’em....  The brightest and best was killed in Nat’s time.  The whites always suspect such ones.  They killed a great many at a place called Duplon.  They killed Antonio, a slave of Mr. J. Stanley, whom they shot; then they pointed their guns at him and told him to confess about the insurrection.  He told ’em he didn’t know anything about any insurrection.  They shot several balls through him, quartered him, and put his head on a pole at the fork of the road leading to the court....  It was there but a short time.  He had no trial.  They never do.  In Nat’s time, the patrols would tie up the free colored people, flog ’em, and try to make ’em lie against one another, and often killed them before anybody could interfere.  Mr. James Cole, High Sheriff, said if any of the patrols came on his plantation, he would lose his life in defense of his people.  One day he heard a patroller boasting how many Negroes he had killed.  Mr. Cole said, ’If you don’t pack up, as quick as God Almighty will let you, and get out of this town, and never be seen in it again, I’ll put you where dogs won’t bark at you.’  He went off, and wasn’t seen in them parts again.”

[Footnote 1:  Drewry, 101.]

[Footnote 2:  Charity Bowery, who gave testimony to L.M.  Child, quoted by Higginson.]