SECRET KEEPER RICHMOND (UNKNOWN) TO SECRET KEEPER
NORFOLK (UNKNOWN) (1793)3
Dear Friend—
The great secret that has been so long in being with our own color has come nearly to a head tho some on our Town has told of it but in such a slight manner it is not believed[.] [W]e have got about five hundred Guns aplenty of lead but not much powder[.] I hope you have made a good collection of powder and ball and will hold yourself in readiness to strike whenever called for and never be out of the way[.] [I]t will not be long before it will take place, and I am fully satisfied we shall be in full possession of the [w]hole country in a few weeks[.] [S]ince I wrote you last I got a letter from our friend in Charleston[:] he tells me has listed near six thousand men, there is a gentlemen that says he will give us as much powder as we want, and when we begin he will help us all he can, the damns brutes patroles is going all night in Richmond but will soon kill them all, there ain’t many, we will appoint a night to begin with fire clubs and shot, we will kill all before us, it will begin in every town in one nite[.] Keep ready to receive orders, when I hear from Charleston again I shall [k]no[w] and will [w]rite to you, be that give you this is a good friend and don’t let any body see it, [w] rite me by the same hand he will give it to me out his hand and he will be up next week[.] [D]on’t be feared have a good heart, fight brave and we will get free[.] I had like to get each [illegible] but God was for me, and I got away, no more now but remain your friend
Secret Keeper Richmond to secret keeper Norfolk.
3 Secret Keeper Richmond (Unknown) to Secret Keeper Norfolk (1793). In “A Letter to and From Slave Rebels,” in Herbert Aptheker, A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, vol. 1 (New York: Citadel Press, 1951), p. 28. From the South Carolina Historical Commission, Columbia, SG.
