Nat Turner: Slave Resistance and Revolution for Freedom - Essay Example

NAT TURNER SLAVE RESISTANCE AND REVOLUTION FOR FREEDOM History is a which deals with the past. It tells the story of times gone with the wind based on stories which are handed down the ages verbally in the form of folk lore or stories heard from grandparents. History relies on facts and is truly distraught with interpretations, discussions, sometimes debates about the interpretations and discussions. Facts are challenged. Narrating of facts are also brought to question. Interpretation of facts comes under scrutiny. Indeed History is malleable subject of inquiry open to several perspectives and interpretations grounded upon a body of evidence. Nat Turner was born in Southampton as a slave. He was the property' of Benjamin Turner, a plantation owner. Nat Turner's mother and grandmother had been brought to America from Africa and hated the concept of slavery from the bottom of their hearts. Nat grew up deeply religious and intensely sharing his mother's views of slavery. He gradually believed that He was God's prophet chosen to lead his people out of slavery. An annual solar eclipse convinced Turner that God had signaled from the Heavens above to start a revolution and with seven other of his associates or friends who were also slaves launched a rebellion. The rebellion began with the house of Nat's new master Joseph Travis. Almost 50 white people were killed. Contrary to what Nat had planned the rebellion was crushed within 48 hours and he himself was captured several days later. Naturally this insurrection had incited public fury and led to a thousand idle exaggerated and mischevious reports' (Thomas R. Gray). It heralded the beginning of a series of upsurges of open rebellion of the slaves which eventually led to the Great Civil War. Everything was shrouded in mystery till the confession' of Nat Turner was brought to light. Thomas R. Gray met Nat Turner in prison and recorded his account of the slave rebellion .Nat Turner was regarded as the Great Bandit'. Thomas Gray claims he found Nat willing to make a full and free confession of the origin, progress and consummation of the insurrectory movements of the slaves of which he was the contriver and head'. (Thomas Gray) The Confessions of Nat Turner like all other confessions cannot be held to be a document of Absolute Truth. It is definitely a revelation of several facts most of which can be corroborated further but every convict even during the last confession of his life will be in fear of his captor even if faced with the gallows. Moreover, what he said has been written down by Thomas Gray in the prison cell. Just as what Turner said may have been directed by emotion so also what was finally written may have been tainted by the writer of this confession to satiate the greatly excited public mind'. The mind is fraught with the very pertinent question did Turner voluntarily make these confessions The Confession remains a subject of intellectual debate , "both praised as a brave look into a rarely represented life, and maligned for what many saw as a clichd conception of a black man.". (NAT TURNER: A Troublesome Property, Styron 1967) Nat Turner's rebellion marked a year that also saw the rise of the abolitionist movement, growing tensions over states' rights and the arrival of the steam locomotive.1831 proved to be a watershed year in American history (Louis P. Masur, author of 1831: Year of Eclipse). The hysterical climate that followed Turner's revolt, blacks from as far away as North Carolina were accused of being part of the insurrection and even executed. Harriet Ann Jacobs, who later escaped to freedom, describes this climate of fear and harassment in her memoirs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself. Nat 's confessions regarding his visions were probably correct and seem to be the words of a prophet who is convinced about his convictions. He sincerely believed that the Holy Spirit which spoke to prophets of earlier times actually spoke to him. He claims unabashedly that the Spirit told him "Seed ye the kingdom of Heaven and all things shall be added unto you." (Gray) He claimed he saw visions and lights in the sky which directed his actions all through his life. He made his own interpretations and was firmly convinced about his own meanings about what he saw. He told Gray that he "saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened - the thunder rolled in the Heavens, and blood flowed in streams and I heard a voice saying, "Such is your luck, such you are called to see, and let it come rough or smooth, you must surely bare it. I now" (Gray). Nat was convinced that he was called upon by Divine Intervention to start this insurrection. He said, "from the first steps of righteousness until the last, was I made perfect; and the Holy Ghost was with me, and said, "Behold me as I stand in the Heavens" - and I looked and saw the forms of men in different attitudes - and there were lights in the sky to which the children of darkness gave other names than what they really were- for they were the lights of the Savior's hands, stretched forth from east to west, even as they were extended on the cross on Calvary for the redemption of sinners." (Gray) His conviction gave him the wild passion required to start and continue the insurrection. He seemed to have had no regrets. But then prophets never do. They are convinced about what their purpose of life. But the account of the violence does raise several questions in one's mind. Can someone so religious be so blood thirsty and so violent The extreme gory account of the several killings by Turner and his associates and the unabashed way Turner relates this makes the historian question the authenticity of the account. One cannot help wondering at the courage of Nat Turner and the several other slaves who began this insurrection. The year 1831 proved to be a watershed in the History of America. These insurrections in the history of slavery shaped the History of early America. The socio economic basis of the South was the plantations where slaves were a necessity. Uncle Tom's Cabin and Gone with The Wind are stories written about the South of those times, and the way of life of people then and there. Their outlook to the slave culture and the outlook of the Yankies' as reflected in books like Little Women is vastly different. This naturally led to the Great Civil War. In this context Nat Turner's uprising forms a guiding force in the development of the History of America. Although distraught with controversies and filled with various interpretations it forms a very important source of history. . Read More