M & S Rare Books

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A wonderful letter, well written by a man who signs his name as "Manning." Evidently written to manning's fiancee, describing events in the area, including celebrations of Christmas, an attack upon a "worthless white man, who for some misconduct, had a week before been ordered by a few of our citizens to decamp, and wickedly refused to." The wry account describes how before he was stabbed and dragged from his home, the man was defended by "his wife and half a dozen naked children..." who shrieked and screamed so loud that people thought "that the insurgent Negroes had commenced their horrid war....The alarm about an insurrection (which had almost died away before you left) was revived just before Christmasby the discovery that there were small cedar and pine branches...scattered along many of our public roads to a great distance. These were considered signs and instructions given by the slaves: And the affair is now denominated the Cedar Bush Insurrrection."