A slave and his one dangerous wish: FREEDOM

Period 2US History

Bryan SamuelDaniel CasaleCollin Browse

Per. 2US History

Childhood• Nat Turner was born in Southampton County,

Virginia on October 2, 1800. • He was brought up in a deeply religious family– This caused to him to have frequent visions from God.

These visions greatly influenced his life.– At 21 he ran away from his master and returned a

month later due to guidance from a vision. From then on he was called The Prophet among his fellow slaves.

– One vision was “the last shall be first” meaning the slaves were meant to rule.

Adult Life • On the 12 of February, 1831, a solar eclipse

took place. Nat Turner felt this was a sign from God, that a black man’s hand was reaching across the sun.

• A second solar eclipse appeared in August of the same year. “The Prophet” took this as a symbol and began his rebellion a week later.

The Southampton Insurrection1 (1831)

• On the night of August 21 at Southampton County, Nat Turner finally commenced his battle against “all the white people”

• His makeshift militia was composed of over 70 free and enslaved blacks.

• Using only knives, axes and other such stealthy weapons, the “army” killed 55 whites, men, women, and children alike.

The Southampton Insurrection2

• They only spared those of impoverished disposition, in the justification that they “thought no better of themselves than of negroes”

• Nat Turner himself confessed to killing only one person

• It was the bloodiest slave revolt inthe history of the south

Capture

• The rebellion was finally ended when a militia of whites of almost double the number, supplemented by artillery, defeated the insurgents.

• He evaded capture for over two months. He hid in the Dismal Swamp area and was unintentionally found by a hunter on October 30. He surrendered calmly.

• He was sentenced to death following a trial. On November 1st, 1831, Nat Turner was hanged.

Consequences1

• Directly after the rebellion, the punishment was clearly not on only Nat Turner and his fellow rebels, but on all blacks in the south– 200 blacks who were completely unrelated to the

rebellion were killed by white supremacists– The Virginia General Assembly forbade teaching

blacks the ability to read, write. – After the civil war, almost all blacks were illiterate.– Also, public gatherings of blacks was prohibited

without a white priest present.

Consequences2

• His lawyer during the trial, Thomas Ruffin Gray, wrote the Confessions of Nat Turner. – This book was composed of

tales of Turner, which his lawyer heard from his client during conversations and interviews.

– A modern adaptation was written in 1967 by William Styron. This first person historical narrative was criticized as being to empathetic with Turner and not being realistic.

Consequences3

• The most important result was that it opened the eyes of all African Americans that liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness were God given rights that all men were entitled to.– “his uprising was as much black against white in a

slaveholding society as it was slave versus owner.”

Fun Facts

• In 2002, Nat Turner was named in the “100 Greatest African Americans” list by Molefi Kete Asante.

• William Styron's 1967 Confessions of Nat Turner won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968

• Several Comic Books, Films and Songs been based on Nat Turner. Immortal Techniques’ 2003 song, "Point of No Return”, references Turner

Bibliography

• http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/nat-turner/ • http://www.bookrags.com/• Nat_Turner www.dbs.ohiohistory.org/

africanam/page1.cfm?ItemIB=14427 • http://blackrevolution.net/BLACKREV/CFBR/

PAGES/NTBIO.html• http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6811• http://docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/turner.html