William Henry Shelton's The Discovery of Nat Turner.
On August 22, 1831 the largest slave revolt in American history took place in Southampton County, Virginia. The rebellion was led by Nat Turner. Turner was born on October 2, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. He had learned to read and write and as a young boy. His faith played a significant role in his life and was often observed fasting, praying and reading the Bible. By the time he had reached his twenties his peers viewed him as spiritual leader and that God had chosen him to do great things. During the 1820's Turner had a series of visions in which he believed that he was being prepared to fight a battle against evil.
After witnessing a solar eclipse in February of 1831 Turner interpreted the event as his sign to move forward with the insurrection. Turner and several of his must trusted peers planned for months. Finally on August 13 a disturbance in the atmosphere gave the sun a "blueish-green appearance." Turner took this as his sign to carry out his plan. A week later Turner and six men set out on their mission. The first assault would be on Turner's master Joseph Travis and his family. The family was stabbed to death in their sleep. The men decided to use knifes over guns in an effort to prevent attention from being brought to them. The rebellion would continue for about 24 hours, killing 55 people and recruiting as many as 60 slaves along the way. By mid-day word of the insurrection had spread throughout the country side. Turner and his men were then confronted by a heavily armed militia of about 3,000 federal and state troops causing them to panic and become disorganized. Most of the men fled into the wilderness and eluded capture, including Nat Turner. During the short skirmish with the militiamen only one slave was killed. Turner remained at large until October 30 when he was spotted near the Travis farm and captured.
On November 5, Turner was tried and sentenced for execution. He was then hanged and skinned on November 11. Fallowing the rebellion the white population went into hysteria fearing similar insurgencies. This resulted in at least 200 slaves being killed, many of which had absolutely nothing to do with Nat Turner's rebellion. Virginia's Governor John Floyd tired to put a stop to the mob rule by insisting that those who had participated in the insurrection should be tried in court, however the damage had already been done. Virginia even thought about abolishing slavery but ended up tightening the laws on "black freedoms." The fear of more rebellions even reached into North Carolina, especially the northern counties such as Halifax and Northampton. Rumors caused more violence, made slave holders keep a close eye on their slave's behavior, and made more restrictions towards slaves and free blacks.
These new laws prohibited slaves from preaching, carrying a firearm, and co-habituating with whites or free blacks, just to name a few. The new laws also made it illegal for whites to teach the enslaved how to read and write. From a historical perspective this can be seen as a major reason why there is very few written personal accounts of slavery during its height. Nat Turner's "account" of the rebellion would be published by Dr. Thomas R. Gray while interviewing Turner in prison. According to Gray "The Confession of Nat Turner" is the word for word account of Nat Turner. However one is to keep in mind that it is highly possible for Gray to have altered the account using his own bias. Gray states that while he was listening to Turner's account the interview made "My blood curled in my veins."
Sources:
NCDCR. "Nat Turner's Rebellion; Rreprecussions Felt in NC." August 21, 2013.
http://nchistorytoday.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/nat-turners-rebellion-repercussions-felt-in-n-c/
PBS. "Africans in America." http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1518.html
Wood, L. Maren and David Walbert. "Nat Turner's Rebellion" http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newnation/4574
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