![]() It should tell us where the road name came from and what it has meant. īut maybe what is needed more than removing the road name and thus facilitating forgetting of the rebellion and the violence from the dark days of slavery is yet another sign. He told the County Commissioners in July that “this is 2015, this is not 1860” and the name is “an insult. John Ricks, a retired Marine who lives in Southampton. The movement for renaming is being led by Mr. They tied Alfred to a tree and shot him, because they “deemed that his immediate execution would operate as a beneficial example to the other Insurgents - many of whom were still in arms and unsubdued”. Then a group of mounted militia from Greensville County came along. They disabled him “by cutting the longer tendon just above the heel in each leg” and left him there by the side of the road as they went in search of other rebels. According to a petition Waller filed with the Virginia legislature asking for compensation, Alfred was first caught by a small band of the local militia. It is likely that the slave involved was Alfred, a blacksmith owned by Levi Waller, whose wife and children were murdered in the rebellion. One of the first historians of the rebellion, writing in 1900, said that the signpost was “ever afterwards painted black as a warning against any future outrage.” In Southampton County, the scene of the 1831 Nat Turner slave rebellion, there is a move afoot to rename “Blackhead Signpost Road.” The road takes its name from a rebel whose severed head was placed on a pole as a warning to others. The name of this road was changed from Blackhead Signpost to Signpost in 2021.Published 11:28am Saturday, August 15, 2015 The beheaded man may have been Alfred, an enslaved blacksmith who, though not implicated in any revolt killings, was slain by militia near here. At this intersection, where Turner’s force had turned toward Jerusalem (now Courtland), the severed head of a black man was displayed on a post and left to decay to terrorize others and deter future uprisings against slavery. 1831, following the revolt led by enslaved preacher Nat Turner, white residents and militias retaliated by murdering an indeterminable number of African Americans-some involved in the revolt, some not-in Southampton County and elsewhere. Currently there are more than 2,600 official state markers, most maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation, and by local partners in jurisdictions outside of VDOT’s authority. Route 1, is considered the oldest such program in the nation. Virginia’s historical highway marker program, which began in 1927 with the installation of the first historical markers along U.S. The marker’s manufacturing costs were covered by its sponsor, Citizens Create Change. The marker was approved for manufacture and installation earlier this year by the Virginia Board of Historic Resources, which is authorized to designate new state historical markers. In 2021, the name was changed to Signpost Road. At the intersection where the marker is located, the severed head of a Black man, who may have been an enslaved blacksmith named Alfred-who was not implicated in any revolt killings-was placed on a post “to terrorize others and deter future uprisings against slavery,” the marker states. McEachin.įollowing Nat Turner’s revolt in August 1831, “white residents and militias retaliated by murdering an indeterminable number of African Americans,” according to the marker. Additionally, Sylvia Copeland, from the Office of Congressman Donald McEachin, will read a message from Rep. Renna Ebron, of Lambda Psi Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Timothy Mays, of Franklin-Southampton Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and former chair of the Va. Board of Supervisors Chief Walt “Red Hawk” Brown of the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton Co. After the formal ceremony, attendees will visit the marker, located at the intersection of Route 35 and Meherrin Road in Courtland, to unveil the sign.Įvent speakers will include Carl Faison, of the Southampton Co. 11, beginning at 10 a.m., at Shiloh Baptist Church, located at 30188 Shiloh Road, Boykins (23827). The marker will be dedicated during a public ceremony on Saturday, Dec. RICHMOND – This weekend sponsors will dedicate a state historical marker issued by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources that highlights one legacy of enslaved preacher Nat Turner’s revolt in Southampton County, when after the uprising the severed head of a Black man was displayed on a post and left to decay, giving rise to the name of Blackhead Signpost Road, which was recently renamed. Contact: Randy Jones, Signpost Road was so named after the severed head of an enslaved man was set on a post and left to decay after Nat Turner’s revolt.
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