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The Rebecca Vaughan House (c. 1800, but perhaps as early as 1795) in Southampton County, Virginia was purchased by the Southampton County Historical Society in 2004 and moved from its original location to save it from pending destruction. It was proposed by Delegate William Barlow, D-Smithfield that $30,000 be sent to the society for the house in FY06 for Virginia. However, that not being the most productive of our Assembly's time in Richmond, no funding was sent.
It has become an even larger budget item for the Virginia General Assembly in its FY 06-07 budget for Non-state entities-Nonstate agencies. The House of Delegates request in House Bill 1650 is a request again from Delegate Barlow for $400,000 to be sent to the Southampton County Historical Society for the preservation, restoration, and rehab of the house. Delegate Roslyn Tyler is also advocating that $400,000 be sent to the benefit of this historic house. (http://legis.state.va.us/amendtmp/temp2630613.htm)
Who was Rebecca Vaughan you say?
She was one of the people killed in Nat Turner's slave insurrection in Virginia in 1831. From the Confessions of Nat Turner:
"Mrs. Vaughan's was the next place we visited - and after murdering the family here, I determined on starting for Jerusalem - Our number amounted now to fifty or sixty, all mounted and armed with guns, axes, swords and clubs- On reaching Mr. James W. Parker's gate, immediately on the road leading to Jerusalem, and about three miles distant, it was proposed to me to call there, but I objected, as I knew he was gone to Jerusalem, and my object was to reach there as soon as possible; but some of the men having relations at Mr. Parker's it was agreed that they might call and get his people." (Source: The Confessions of Nat Turner Baltimore: THOMAS R. GRAY. Lucas & Deaver, print. 1831. http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/turner/turner.html)
Rebecca Vaughan and her niece, Anne E. Vaughan were killed here and were the last two whites murdered by Turner's insurrectionists. Anne, 18 years old, was killed in the yard and the Widow Vaughan was killed while praying upstairs.
Why should Civil War enthusiasts people care?
The house is one of the last surviving buildings where people were killed as a result of the rebellion. It instilled a fear in southerners that had been somewhat quiet in the aftermath of Gabriel Prosser's intended insurrection earlier in the century. Harriet Jacobs, a slave who lived in eastern North Carolina wrote in her 1861 memoirs: "NOT far from this time Nat Turner's insurrection broke out; and the news threw our town into great commotion. Strange that they should be alarmed when their slaves were so "contented and happy"! But so it was." She described the treatment of blacks, free and enslaved in the aftermath of the raid:
"Those who never witnessed such scenes can hardly believe what I know was inflicted at this time on innocent men, women, and children, against whom there was not the slightest ground for suspicion. Colored people and slaves who lived in remote parts of the town suffered in an especial manner. In some cases the searchers scattered powder and shot among their clothes, and then sent other parties to find them, and bring them forward as proof that they were plotting insurrection. Every where men, women, and children were whipped till the blood stood in puddles at their feet. Some received five hundred lashes; others were tied hands and feet, and tortured with a bucking paddle, which blisters the skin terribly. The dwellings of the colored people, unless they happened to be protected by some influential white person, who was nigh at hand, were robbed of clothing and every thing else the marauders thought worth carrying away. All day long these unfeeling wretches went round, like a troop of demons, terrifying and tormenting the helpless. At night, they formed themselves into patrol bands, and went wherever they chose among the colored people, acting out their brutal will."
(Source: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself by Harriet Jacobs, 1861. http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html)
Let us hope that the Vaughan House is saved and perhaps you will be motivated to write to someone in the General Assembly to get them interested as well in the fate of the Vaughan house.
For more on the house see the National Register Nomination Form: http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/register...06_NRdraft.pdf.
It has become an even larger budget item for the Virginia General Assembly in its FY 06-07 budget for Non-state entities-Nonstate agencies. The House of Delegates request in House Bill 1650 is a request again from Delegate Barlow for $400,000 to be sent to the Southampton County Historical Society for the preservation, restoration, and rehab of the house. Delegate Roslyn Tyler is also advocating that $400,000 be sent to the benefit of this historic house. (http://legis.state.va.us/amendtmp/temp2630613.htm)
Who was Rebecca Vaughan you say?
She was one of the people killed in Nat Turner's slave insurrection in Virginia in 1831. From the Confessions of Nat Turner:
"Mrs. Vaughan's was the next place we visited - and after murdering the family here, I determined on starting for Jerusalem - Our number amounted now to fifty or sixty, all mounted and armed with guns, axes, swords and clubs- On reaching Mr. James W. Parker's gate, immediately on the road leading to Jerusalem, and about three miles distant, it was proposed to me to call there, but I objected, as I knew he was gone to Jerusalem, and my object was to reach there as soon as possible; but some of the men having relations at Mr. Parker's it was agreed that they might call and get his people." (Source: The Confessions of Nat Turner Baltimore: THOMAS R. GRAY. Lucas & Deaver, print. 1831. http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/turner/turner.html)
Rebecca Vaughan and her niece, Anne E. Vaughan were killed here and were the last two whites murdered by Turner's insurrectionists. Anne, 18 years old, was killed in the yard and the Widow Vaughan was killed while praying upstairs.
Why should Civil War enthusiasts people care?
The house is one of the last surviving buildings where people were killed as a result of the rebellion. It instilled a fear in southerners that had been somewhat quiet in the aftermath of Gabriel Prosser's intended insurrection earlier in the century. Harriet Jacobs, a slave who lived in eastern North Carolina wrote in her 1861 memoirs: "NOT far from this time Nat Turner's insurrection broke out; and the news threw our town into great commotion. Strange that they should be alarmed when their slaves were so "contented and happy"! But so it was." She described the treatment of blacks, free and enslaved in the aftermath of the raid:
"Those who never witnessed such scenes can hardly believe what I know was inflicted at this time on innocent men, women, and children, against whom there was not the slightest ground for suspicion. Colored people and slaves who lived in remote parts of the town suffered in an especial manner. In some cases the searchers scattered powder and shot among their clothes, and then sent other parties to find them, and bring them forward as proof that they were plotting insurrection. Every where men, women, and children were whipped till the blood stood in puddles at their feet. Some received five hundred lashes; others were tied hands and feet, and tortured with a bucking paddle, which blisters the skin terribly. The dwellings of the colored people, unless they happened to be protected by some influential white person, who was nigh at hand, were robbed of clothing and every thing else the marauders thought worth carrying away. All day long these unfeeling wretches went round, like a troop of demons, terrifying and tormenting the helpless. At night, they formed themselves into patrol bands, and went wherever they chose among the colored people, acting out their brutal will."
(Source: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself by Harriet Jacobs, 1861. http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html)
Let us hope that the Vaughan House is saved and perhaps you will be motivated to write to someone in the General Assembly to get them interested as well in the fate of the Vaughan house.
For more on the house see the National Register Nomination Form: http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/register...06_NRdraft.pdf.
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