The General and Specific Social Conditions That Existed for Nat Turner - Essay Example

It is pertinent to note that there were general and specific social conditions that were instrumental to Nat Turner’s actions during this period of a slave revolt in the 1830s. There were several personal events in the life of Nat Turner and there were also some character traits that motivated Turner to rebellion.

It is also important to consider whether or not the actions of Nat Turner were warranted or not. The aforementioned issues are what would be succinctly discussed in this paper. It was actually the horrors of American slavery during the nineteenth century that triggered the rebellion of Nat Turner and his cohorts. It was the anguish that was caused by the alarming increase in the death of African Americans and the annihilation of slave families that triggered the actions of Nat Turner and his followers into conducting what could be described as a rather violent revolt.

However, Nat Turner was regarded as a religious fanatic and this could also have precipitated his violent actions in the revolt against the white slave owners. It was due to Nat Turner’s religious zealousness that he was not apologetic in his confession when he was tried in a court in Southampton County (Oates 176-178). I do not approve of the way and manner that Turner conducted the rebellion as the killing of his master and his family was unwarranted in any way. The manner in which Nat Turner conducted his rebellion gives one the impression that he was violent in nature.

Nat Turner and his accomplices slaughtered defenseless women, children, and babies during the revolt (Oates 101-104). It was due to Nat Turner’s rather careless approach to the issue of slavery that thwarted the abolishment of slavery in the South and made the movement to abolish slavery lose its grounds in the South. It was after Nat Turner’s revolt that white legislatures from the South imposed austere laws on slaves in the South. It was due to the violent nature of Nat Turner’s led rebellion that it is described as one of the most bloody revolts in the history of the United States of America, a situation that led to the death of about seventy whites and over two hundred blacks.