Letter of B. W. Daniel to William Augustus Blount, September 16, 1831.

Letter of B. W. Daniel to William Augustus Blount, September 16, 1831.

For this letter, I am addressing the information provided in the footnote more so than the letter itself. The letter reflects the government addressing the build up of civilian militias. In the footnote, the editor addresses the frequency of militia creations in North Carolina after the Nat Turner Slave Insurrection. It addresses the fear of another slave rebellion as well as the belief in the need for militias to protect. This provides a great precursor to the reaction that would ensue after John Brown's raid over twenty-eight years later.

Morgan, David

B.W. Daniel to William Augustus Blount, Raleigh, September 16, 1831, in The Papers of John Gray Blount Volume IV, ed. David T. Morgan, (Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources Division of Archives and History, 1982), 575. 

1831-09-16

Hammond, Andrew

Document

Raleigh, Wake County

Gen Wm A Blount Dear Sir I must request the favour of you to turn the arms recieved from Newbern, in your possession over to the company raising in your County (footnote 39)

Footnote 39:

Nat Turner's insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia, during the late summer of
1831 prompted a number of North Carolina counties, especially in the eastern part of the
state, to call out their militias. Numerous rumors of slave conspiracies in North Carolina
were spawned by Turner's activities. At least twenty slaves were executed in North Carolina
because of the rumors and general hysteria. This letter no doubt refers to arms issued
to the militia during the Turner scare. Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina, 519-520.