Harriet bit into her toast; she did not want to appear too eager to share—though, of course, she was eager. She chewed slowly. Calvin lifted his brows. She used her napkin to brush crumbs from her mouth, doing her best to look nonchalant.
“Please, Mrs. Stowe, I am keen to hear what might make you believe the governor was not in full agreement with Southampton County’s handling of the rebellion and trials.”
“Professor, I know you are busy. I do not want to trouble you.”
“If you doubted my interest that would trouble me more.”
Harriet cleared her throat, laid her napkin on the table, then began reading from the diary excerpts. “Governor Floyd begins writing on August 23rd, and it is obvious that he is most concerned.
“‘I began to consider how to prepare for the crisis. To call out the militia and equip a military force for that service. But according to the forms of this wretched and abominable Constitution, I must first require advice of council, and then disregard it, if I please. On this occasion there was not one councillor in the city. I went on, made all the arrangements for suppressing the insurrection, having all my orders ready for men, arms, ammunition, etc., and when by this time, one of the council came to town, and that vain and foolish ceremony was gone through. In a few hours the troops marched, Captain Randolph with a fine troop of cavalry and Captain John B. Richardson with Light Artillery both from this city and two companies of Infantry from Norfolk and Portsmouth. The Light Artillery had under their care one thousand stand of arms for Southampton and Sussex, with a good supply of ammunition. All these things were dispatched in a few hours.’”
She looked up from her reading to meet her husband’s eyes. “You recall, Professor, that Congressman James Trezvant had sent notice to the public that an army of two hundred or more runaway slaves from the Great Dismal Swamp had attacked Southampton.”
Calvin nodded. “Go on.”
“On the twenty-fourth: ‘This day was spent in distributing arms to the various counties below this where it was supposed it would be wanted.’”
Harriet turned the page. “But on the twenty-fifth the governor receives word from the general in command: ‘I received dispatches from Brigadier Richard Eppes, stating that with local militia those I sent him were more than enough to suppress the insurrection.’
“The next day the governor continues to receive requests for arms from other counties like Brunswick, Nansemond, Surry, and towns, including Greenville.
“On the third of September, he mentions trials and names I have heard before—Moses, Daniel, Andrew, and Jack. He seems to find the distance they were purported to cover astounding. ‘The insurgents progressed twenty miles before they were checked, yet all this horrid work was accomplished in two days.’”
Harriet sighed and forced herself to take a sip of tea. “Governor Floyd finds the twenty miles incredible. What must he have thought when by the end of things the rebels were said to have covered fifty miles in two days?” She began to search the pages. “Over the days, he received records of scores of slaves condemned to hang in Southampton and other counties. Then on September 17th, I begin to sense some doubt.
“‘Received an express from Amelia today, asking arms as families have been murdered in Dinwiddie near the Nottoway line. Colonel Davidson of the 39th Regiment Petersburgh states the same by report. I do not exactly believe the report.’
“The governor was so sympathetic when he first heard of the rebellion, or the insurrection, as he called it. But on the nineteenth Floyd writes, ‘News from the Colonel of the 39th says the whole is false as it relates to the massacre of Mrs. Cousins and family in Dinwiddie. The slaves are quiet and evince no disposition to rebel.’ The next day he writes: ‘The alarm of the country is great in the counties between this and the Blue Ridge Mountains. I am daily sending them a portion of arms though I know there is no danger as the slaves were never more humbled and subdued.’
“On September 23rd, he mentions two trials in particular that troubled him: ‘I received the record of the trial of Lucy and Joe of Southampton. They were of the insurgents.’”
Calvin leaned forward in his chair, his fingers steepled, his elbows on the table.
“Do you remember me telling you of them, Professor? Lucy and Joe belonged to the widow Mary Barrow and to John Clarke Turner, respectively. I remember when I was told of the trials that my heart was filled with doubt. The governor appears to have been doubtful also. He wrote, ‘What can be done, I yet know not, as I am obliged by the Constitution first to require the advice of the council, then to do as I please. This endangers the lives of these negroes, though I am disposed to reprieve for transportation I cannot do it until I first require advice of council and there are no councillors now in Richmond, nor will there be unless Daniel comes to town in time enough.’”
Harriet pushed her toast away. She had no appetite. People died for no reason. She continued, forcing her way through the reading, “Then on September 27th, ‘I have received record of the trial of three slaves for treason in Southampton. Am recommended to mercy, which I would grant… but in this case I cannot do so, because there is not one member of the Council of State in Richmond. Wherefore, the poor wretches must lose their lives by absence of the councillors from their official duties.’”
Harriet refolded the letter and stuffed it back in its envelope. It was appalling how little care men had for their brothers. “All this is making me ill.”
“And indignant, my dear Harriet.”
“But it was so long ago, Professor. What good does it do to dig it all up now? It is twenty-five years hence and as the governor stated, the poor wretches have already lost their lives. I cannot bring them back.”
“Perhaps, my wife. But the truth is still a precious gem that does not lose value with age. Truth might at least ease the suffering of loved ones left behind.”
The two of them discussed the diary entries. “They are too detailed for me to doubt them.” When they were finished it was decided. She could not travel to the South to investigate; there was a bounty on her head. Instead, Harriet would travel to New York to share the letter with Frederick Douglass and her brother Henry.