The Rhode Island Republican

Insurrection of the negroes in N. Carolina.—The following letter, containing the unpleasant information of an insurrection among the blacks in North Carolina, was received yesterday, by Mr. Barnum, City Hotel.

RALEIGH, 13th Sept. 1831. Dear Brother—I came to Raleigh last night on business, at the same time expecting to find a letter in the office from you. I stayed in town all night, but was aroused from my sleep by the alarm that the negroes were advancing towards this place. Expresses arrived during the night that Wilmington was in the hands of the blacks and burnt. The town of Raleigh was under arms all night, and this morning presents a dreary aspect—women running in every direction almost distracted.

The leading men of the town are at this moment assembled at the Court House examining a number of negroes. All business is stopped and arms collecting from all parts of the country. I have just been with a party of gentlemen to examine all the ammunition in the stores.

P. S. while writing the above, a man has arrived in express from Johnson County, and killed his horse on the road, and begs assistance for arms and ammunition.

Since the above was in type, we have the Fayetteville (N. C.) Observer, of 14th inst., which, though confirming the account of insurrectionary movements in North Carolina proves that, at the time when, according to the Raleigh letter Wilmington was destroyed by the blacks, it had not been even assailed. Raleigh is about one hundred miles north by east of Wilmington; Fayetteville is only distant about sixty, in a north-east direction. The date of the Fayetteville account is of Wednesday the 14th, and refers to accounts from Wilmington direct, of two days before, Monday 12th. The date from Raleigh is of the 13th; and it was on the preceding night—namely, the night of the 12th—that expresses arrived announcing that Wilmington, which we know was standing and prepared for defence on the morning of that day, was burnt. Independently of the improbability of a negro force being sufficiently organized to carry a town thus on its guard, the express—in order to make the account true—must have ridden more than 100 miles over mountain and morass, and through the revolted counties, (for Sampson and Duplin counties lie between Wilmington and Raleigh.) in ten or twelve hours. We trust confidently the whole may be a false alarm, growing out of the arrest referred to by the Observer.

Fayetteville was tranquil and prepared.

From the Fayetteville Observer, of 14th August

Rumored Insurrectionary Movements in Sampson County.—We have an unpleasant duty to perform, in acquainting our readers, that there is no doubt of a conspiracy having been recently formed among a portion of the slaves in the counties of Sampson & Duplin, in this State. Suspicion having been excited, we learn that during the last week, a slave of Thomas K. Morrissey, Esq. Sheriff of Sampson, who had been esteemed very faithful, and was usually entrusted with his master's waggon whenever it was sent to Wilmington, was arrested, and on examination, confessed that he and six or seven others had designed to bring about an insurrection on the 1st of October ensuing. That their plan was to muster what forces they could in those two counties, and thence to proceed to Wilmington; where they expected to collect a large force. The negroes implicated by him were arrested, and all committed for trial.

What we have subsequently heard, we trust has grown out of the above circumstances, or at least is greatly exaggerated; but we do not feel at liberty to withhold it from our readers, and therefore state, that on Monday evening an express arrived here from Clinton, in Sampson, bringing letters from a respectable gentleman in that village, stating, upon the authority of two persons, names not mentioned, who had come express to Clinton, at 12 o'clock on Sunday night, that the negroes had embodied themselves to the number of 500, about 17 miles from Clinton, in what direction it was not stated; but from the known intimacy and connexion existing between Mr. Morrissey and the gentleman at Clinton, we infer that the express came from Mr. Morrissey, who lives near the line of Duplin county, about 14 miles from Clinton. The letters received here, state that an express had been forwarded to Wilmington.

When the stage from this place arrived at Wilmington on Monday morning, it was immediately despatched back without any mail except a letter from C. Dudley, Junr, Esq. Postmaster, to the Postmaster here, informing him that the place was under martial law, in consequence of information received at eight o'clock that morning, that the negroes, to the number of two hundred, had encamped on Sunday night, at Rockfish Bridge, in Duplin, forty miles from Wilmington, and about fifty miles from this place; that they were, and had been for several days, expected at Wilmington. The letter was written in great haste and excitement, Mr. Dudley had been under arms all the morning.

It is evident that the account received here, and that which produced such excitement at Wilmington, proceeded from the same source; and our readers may conjecture how much both accounts are exaggerated, from the circumstance that they vary so materially in the numbers stated to be assembled. For our own part we confidently hope it is nothing more than a false alarm, growing out of the arrests stated above.