Southampton-Greene County-Roanoke City Virginia USGenWeb Archives Newspapers.....News, 1892 

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  A RAZOR STRAP FROM THE SKIN OF NAT TURNER.- It 
was fifty-one years since Virginia was thrilled with 
horror by an insurrection, which broke out in 1831 
in Southampton county, under the leadership of Nat 
Turner, a negro of magnificent physique, and strong 
and ambitious mind, but crazed with a fananticism 
which made him fancy himself a God-appointed leader, 
selected to exterminate the whites.  The insurrection 
was quickly quelled, and Turner captured and executed. 
  Some of the physicians, to whom the body was 
surrendered for anatomical purposes, took from Turner's 
back a strip of skin which was converted into a razor 
strap, which afterwards came into the possession of 
Robert Pritchert, clerk of the Greene county court, 
from whom it has come down through four generations to 
his great-grandson, T. W. Sims, of this city.  The 
strap is a plain affair, glued to a wooden back, and 
has evidently seen service although it is by no means 
worn out.- "Roanoke Record." 


"Alexandria (VA) Gazette," Sep. 15, 1892 (Vol. 93, No. 220), 
   p. 1, col. 1 

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      A Razor Strap from the Skin of 
               Nat Turner. 
  It is fifty-one years since Virginia was thrilled 
with horror by an insurrection, which broke out in 
1831 in Southampton county, under the leadership of 
Nat Turner, a negro of magnificent physique and strong 
and ambitious mind, but crazy with a fananticism which 
made him fancy himself a God-appointed leader, selected 
to exterminate the whites.  The insurrection was quickly 
quelled, and Turner captured and executed. 
  Some of the physicians, to whom the body was surrendered 
for anatomical purposes, took from Turner's back a strip of 
skin which was converted into a razor strap, which afterwards 
came into the possession of Robert Pritchert, clerk of the 
Green county court, from whom it has come down through four 
generations to his great-grandson, T. W. Sims, of this city. 
The strap is a plain affair, glued to a wooden back, and has 
evidently seen service although it is by no means worn out.- 
"Roanoke Herald." 


"Shenandoah Herald" (Woodstock, VA) Sep. 23, 1892 (Vol. 72, No. 31), 
   p. 2, col. 6 


Additional information: 

The death notice of William "Buck" MALLORY claimed he had skinned Nat TURNER, 
"and the hide being tanned, portions of it are now in the 'curiousity shops' 
of many residents in and about Southampton." 
"The Daily Dispatch" (Richmond, VA), July 18, 1860, p. 1, col. 4, 
citing the "Petersburg (Va.) Express."  File at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/m460w2ob.txt 


Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
Matt Harris (zoobug64@aol.com) [line breaks mine]  

file at: 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/news/09151892ag.txt