The recentspapers of the day contain many indignant protests against thecruelties which took place. "It is with pain," says a correspondent ofthe _National Intelligencer_, Sept. 7, 1831, "that we speak of anotherfeature of the Southampton Rebellion; for we have been most unwilling tohave our sympathies for the sufferers diminished or affected by theirmisconduct. We allude to the slaughter of many blacks without trial andunder circumstances of great barbarity.... We met with an individual ofintelligence whom told us that he himself had killed between ten andfifteen.... We [the Richmond troop] witnessed with surprise thesanguinary temper of the population, whom evinced a strong disposition toinflict immediate death on every prisoner."