The Virginia Gazette

Some time about Christmas last, a tragical affair happened at a plantation in North Wales, Hanover county, belonging to Bowler Cocke, Esq; the particulars of which, according to the accounts we have received, are as follow, viz. The Negroes belonging to the plantation having long been treated with too much lenity and indulgence, were grown extremely insolent and unruly; Mr. Cocke therefore had employed a new Steward. The Steward's deputy (a young man) had ordered one of the slaves to make a fire every morning very early; the fellow did not appear till sunrise; on being examined why he came not sooner, he gave most insolent and provoking answers, upon which, the young man going to chastise him, the fellow made a stroke at him with an axe (or some such weapon) that was in his hand, but happily missed him. The young man then closed with him, and having the advantage, a number of the other slaves came to the Negro's assistance, and beat the young man severely. At last the ringleader (a very sensible fellow) interceded for him, on which they desisted. The young man then made off as fast as he could, to procure assistance to quell them. Whilest he was gone, they tied up the Steward, and also a poor innocent, harmless old man, who overlooked a neighbouring quarter, and on hearing the uproar—came across the creek to know the cause of it. They whipped till they were raw from the neck to the waistband. In some time the young man returned, with about twelve white men, and two little boys carrying each a gun. They released the two unhappy sufferers, and then proceeded to a barn, where they found a large body of the Negroes assembled (some say forty, some fifty) on whom they tried to prevail by persuasion. but the slaves, deaf to all they said, rushed upon them with a desperate fury, armed with clubs and staves; one of them knocked down a white man, and was going to repeat the blow to finish him, which one of the boys seeing, levelled his piece, discharged its contents into the fellow's breast, and brought him to the dust. Another fellow having also knocked down another of the Whites, was, in the same manner, shot by the other boy. In short, the battle continued some time desperate, but another of the Negroes having his head almost cut off with a broad sword, and five of them being wounded, the rest fled. The accounts vary; some say three were killed upon the spot, and five wounded, others that two were killed, and five wounded, one of whom died soon after. It is said they had threatened to kill the Steward as soon as he came to the plantation. The ringleader was one of the slain.