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M.W. de Bree Letter, 1820, Accession # 10930, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
This letter was purchased by the Library from The Autograph Alcove of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, on March 26, 1990.
In this letter, January 29, 1820, M.W. de Bree, Norfolk, writes to her father-in-law John B. de Bree, Philadelphia, expressing concern for the safety of her husband who is aboard the U.S.S. Peacock and relating a story of a slave insurrection upon a ship bound for New Orleans described to her by a friend, Henry Blanchard. Blanchard's ship had carried thirty slaves who had planned while in jail to murder all passengers and crew aboard the ship except for two members of the crew to steer the vessel to St. Domingo. The plot failed because the slaves confided their plans to a female servant of Mrs. Blanchard who informed the passengers. The slaves were placed in irons before they could carry out their plan.