THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 15, 1994 TAG: 9409140161
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COURTLAND LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Terrible bloodshed in Southampton County during two days of 1831 spilled from the whites massacred by blacks, then from the blacks massacred by whites.
All the awful incidents were part of Nat Turner's rebellion, the largest slave revolt in American history, which has been recorded in a videotape series by the Southampton County Historical Society.
``The Nat Turner Insurrection - 1831,'' filmed by John Vargo, takes you on a photographic tour of locations of the rebellion - house by house, building by building.
You watch, check the accompanying map and location descriptions, then see the sites for yourself.
``The authors have made every effort to be as authentic as possible,'' said Lynda T. Updike, president of the historical society.
``We worked on and off for more than three years,'' said Gilbert W. Francis who, with Kitty Futrell, produced and directed the videotape.
``There are still a lot of people who don't want to talk about it. They want to leave it alone,'' Futrell said. ``But it's part of our county's history. It's there. Others write and talk about it, and not all of them know what they're talking about.''
She and Francis know about the two-day revolt, not only from hours spent going over old records and books, particularly ``The Southampton Insurrection'' by William Sidney Drewry, but also through family involvement.
Some of Francis' ancestors owned Nat Turner at one time. Futrell's grandmother, Marine Neale IV, is buried behind the Catharine Whitehead house ``where,'' Kitty Futrell said, ``most of the people were killed. About 10 or 15 kids were killed at the Waller School on Barrow Road.
``Levi Waller was at his still the morning of the insurrection,'' she said. ``Martha, one of his children, was killed.''
Fifty-one men, women and children were slaughtered. When it was over, some vengeance-seeking whites killed many slaves, including several not connected with the rebellion.
It is material worthy of the Pulitzer Prize, which William Styron received for his 1967 book, ``Confessions of Nat Turner.''
Since then, interest in the event has increased greatly.
It was interesting enough to produce eight hours of tape, edited to four.
There are no dramatic re-enactments. You hear Futrell and Francis take you from site to site, telling you what happened at each locale.
The initial locale for the story of slave/preacher Nat Turner is Suffolk, where his mother, Nancy, was bought at auction.
She was taken to the Benjamin Turner farm in Southampton County, where he was born shortly afterward.
``She was a savage, right out of Africa. She tried to kill the baby, determined he would not live as a slave,'' Futrell said. ``The accepted theory, by writers and historians, is that she was restrained by an old slave on the farm named Bridget who took her under her wing. Nancy later became a model slave due to Bridget's influence.''
The story continues with the death of Benjamin Turner in 1810. His oldest son, Samuel, inherited Nat. Samuel Turner died in 1822. A year later, Nat was sold for $450 to his third master, Thomas Moore.
Four years earlier, Moore married Sarah ``Sallie'' Francis, and they had a son, Putnam. Moore died in 1828 and, by law, Nat and other slaves became the young lad's property. He was 9 when he was given legal title.
``Nat helped Sallie run the farm,'' Futrell said. ``She trusted him.''
In 1830, Sallie married Joseph Travis. A year later they were killed during the rebellion, as was their newly born baby.
Also killed at the site was Joel Westbrook, a house visitor. Several of the slave owner's relatives, who lived in other parts of the county, also were massacred.
The revolt ended when the blacks were overpowered by members of the county's militia. Turner was captured a few months later.
He was hanged, and many other slaves were put to death, according to historian Richard N. Current. ``The uprising caused the Southern states to pass strict laws for the control of slaves,'' he says.
``One of the reasons we did the tape,'' Futrell said, ``is to keep the record straight.''
The society is continuing that task, recording the thoughts and remembrances of some of the area's older residents.
The Turner story is the first in the series, appropriately called The Living Library. MEMO: For the four-hour-long tapes of ``The Nat Turner Resurrection _ 1831,''
send $75 to Milton T. Futrell, P.O. Box 407, Courtland, Va. 23837. Make
checks payable to Southampton County Historical Society. For more
information, call 654-6785. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Gilbert Francis and Kitty Futrell produced and directed the
videotape of the Nat Turner rebellion. Some of Francis' ancestors
once owned Nat Turner.
by CNB