Apprehension of trouble in New Kent.
We respectfully call the attention of the military authorities to the following communication, which comes to us from a highly intelligent and respectable citizen of New Kent, whose name we are authorized to give if requested.
It is, we learn, the wish of the people concerned that a company of
United States soldiers shall be sent to Hopkins's mill, there to remain until after the Christmas holidays.
Their presence will, it is hoped, prevent all trouble, and afford the whites that sense of the protecting care and power of the
Government, which is so well calculated to awaken feelings of gratitude.
Messrs. Editors,--I desire, through your paper, to call the attention of the authorities to certain facts and indications recently developed in
New Kent county relative to the movements and designs of our negro population.
The first point is the fact that all the negroes are in possession of arms.
I have seen gangs of negroes summoned to work on the county roads, who, to a man, bring their arms and ammunition with them, and work by the side of white citizens are not to this the Sabbath is made a day of sport by them; and in some instances it is unsafe to carry one's wife or children to church, in consequence of the sporting propensity of the negro, who takes the Sabbath to hunt game, and even hunts so close to the church doors as to disturb the congregation assembled to worship God.
Why, I would ask the authorities, are not these arms taken from the negroes?
They are mostly good arms, and belong to the United States Government.
Why does not the
Government send or appoint some one to collect these arms?
We, the white citizens, were required to deliver up our arms, and we are at a loss to know why we should be stripped of ours and the negro left in possession of his. Another fact.
The negroes in the upper part of
New Kent county have been holding meetings (hour, midnight) at Hopkins's mill every other Saturday night. Is not this a violation of orders, and is it not the duty of the authorities to look into it?
Mr. Editor, you will please propose sending a company down to Hopkins's mill until after Christmas.
