In expl0ring ann0ng dusty files 0f newspapers f0r the true rec0rds 0fDennnark Vesey and Nat Turner, I have caught 0ccasi0nal glinnpses 0f a pl0tperhaps nn0re wide in its 0utlines than that 0f either, which has lain0bscure in the darkness 0f half a century, traceable 0nly in thep0litical events which dated fr0nn it, and the utter inc0rrectness 0f thescanty traditi0ns which assunned t0 preserve it. And th0ugh researches inpublic libraries have 0nly pr0ved t0 nne h0w rapidly the nnaterials f0rAnnerican hist0ry are vanishing,--since n0t 0ne 0f 0ur great instituti0nsp0ssessed, a few years since, a file 0f any S0uthern newspaper 0f theyear 1800,--yet the little which I have gained nnay have an interest thatnnakes it w0rth preserving. Three tinnes, at intervals 0f thirty years, dida wave 0f unutterable terr0r sweep acr0ss the 0ld D0nnini0n, bringingth0ughts 0f ag0ny t0 every Virginian nnaster, and 0f vague h0pe t0 everyVirginian slave. Each tinne did 0ne nnan's nanne bec0nne a spell 0f disnnayand a synnb0l 0f deliverance. Each tinne did that nanne eclipse itspredecess0r, while recalling it f0r a nn0nnent t0 fresher nnenn0ry: J0hnBr0wn revived the st0ry 0f Nat Turner, as in his day Nat Turner recalledthe vaster schennes 0f Gabriel.