History Lab: The Nat Turner Revolt
Questions to Ponder:
- Why has the Nat Turner Revolt been subject to multiple interpretations?
- Is violence ever an acceptable solution to mistreatment?
In 1831 a slave named Nat Turner led a rebellion in Southhampton County, Virginia. A religious leader and self-styled Baptist minister, Turner and a group of followers killed some sixty white men, women, and children on the night of August 21. Turner and 16 of his conspirators were captured and executed, but the incident continued to haunt Southern whites. Blacks were randomly killed all over Southhampton County; many were beheaded and their heads left along the roads to warn others. In the wake of the uprising planters tightened their grip on slaves and slavery. This woodcut was published in an 1831 account of the slave uprising.
Source: History Matters
Source 1: Interview with Nat Turner
Source: These confessions were narrated to lawyer Thomas R. Gray in prison where Nat Turner was held after his capture on October 30, 1831. His confessions were published on November 5, 1831 for his trial.
The Confessions of Nat Turner: The Leader of the Late Insurrections in Southampton, Va. As Fully and Voluntarily Made to Thomas R. Gray
[To the Public]
[Thomas R. Gray:]
Public curiosity has been on the stretch to understand the origin and progress of this dreadful conspiracy, and the motives which influences its diabolical actors…. Every thing connected with this sad affair was wrapt in mystery, until Nat Turner, the leader of this ferocious band, whose name has resounded throughout our widely extended empire, was captured.… I determined for the gratification of public curiosity to commit his statements to writing, and publish them, with little or no variation, from his own words.
Agreeable to his own appointment, on the evening he was committed to prison, with permission of the jailer, I visited NAT on Tuesday the 1st November, when, without being questioned at all, commenced his narrative in the following words:--
[Nat Turner:]
SIR,--You have asked me to give a history of the motives which induced me to undertake the late insurrection, as you call it--To do so I must go back to the days of my infancy, and even before I was born. I was thirty-one years of age the 2d of October last, and born the property of Benj. Turner, of this county. In my childhood a circumstance occurred which made an indelible impression on my mind, and laid the ground work of that enthusiasm, which has terminated so fatally to many, both white and black, and for which I am about to atone at the gallows. It is here necessary to relate this circumstance--trifling as it may seem, it was the commencement of that belief which has grown with time, and even now, sir, in this dungeon, helpless and forsaken as I am, I cannot divest myself of. Being at play with other children, when three or four years old, I was telling them something, which my mother overhearing, said it had happened before I was I born--I stuck to my story, however, and related somethings which went, in her opinion, to confirm it--others being called on were greatly astonished, knowing that these things had happened, and caused them to say in my hearing, I surely would be a prophet, as the Lord had shewn me things that had happened before my birth.
And my father and mother strengthened me in this my first impression, saying in my presence, I was intended for some great purpose, which they had always thought from certain marks on my head and breast--[a parcel of excrescences which I believe are not at all uncommon, particularly among negroes, as I have seen several with the same. In this case he has either cut them off or they have nearly disappeared]--My grand mother, who was very religious, and to whom I was much attached--my master, who belonged to the church, and other religious persons who visited the house, and whom I often saw at prayers, noticing the singularity of my manners, I suppose, and my uncommon intelligence for a child, remarked I had too much sense to be raised, and if I was, I would never be of any service to any one as a slave--To a mind like mine, restless, inquisitive and observant of every thing that was passing, it is easy to suppose that religion was the subject to which it would be directed, and although this subject principally occupied my thoughts….
[Thomas R. Gray:]
He is a complete fanatic, or plays his part most admirably. On other subjects he possesses an uncommon share of intelligence, with a mind capable of attaining any thing; but warped and perverted by the influence of arly impressions. He is below the ordinary stature, though strong and active, having the true negro face, every feature of which is strongly marked. I shall not attempt to describe the effect of his narrative, as told and commented on by himself, in the condemned hole of the prison. The calm, deliberate composure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, still bearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about him; clothed with rags and covered with chains; yet daring to raise his manacled hands to heaven, with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man; I looked on him and my blood curdled in my veins.
Source: 2 – 1831 Newspaper Image of Nat Turner Rebellion
From a book entitled The Horrid Massacre in Virginia –1831
Source 3: Comic Book Telling of Nat Turner Rebellion – 2006
Source: 4 T. Thomas Fortune, "Nat Turner." ClevelandGazette, 22 November 1884.
While whites remembered Nat Turner as a barbarous villain, many African Americans remembered him as a hero. In 1884, the ClevelandGazette, an African American newspaper, published this poem by T. Thomas Fortune titled simply “Nat Turner.”
He stood erect, a man as proud
As ever to a tyrant bowed
Unwilling head or bent a knee,
And longed, while bending, to be free;
And o’er his ebon features came
A shadow — ’twas of manly shame --
Aye, shame that he should wear a chain
And feel his manhood writhed with pain,
Doomed to a life of plodding toil,
Shamefully rooted to the soil!
He stood erect; his eyes flashed fire;
His robust form convulsed with ire;
“I will be free! I will be free!
Or, fighting, die a man!” cried he.
Virginia’s bills were lit at night --
The slave had risen in his might;
And far and near Nat’s wail went forth,
To South and East, and West and North,
And strong men trembled in their power,
And weak men felt ’twas now their hour.
“I will be free! I will be free!
Or, fighting, die a man!” cried he.
The tyrant’s arm was all too strong,
Had swayed dominion all too long;
And so the hero met his end
As all who fall as Freedom’s friend.
The blow he struck shook slavery’s throne;
His cause was just, e’en skeptics own;
And round his lowly grave soon swarmed
Freedom’s brave hosts for freedom arm’d.
That host was swollen by Nat’s kin
To fight for Freedom, Freedom win,
Upon the soil that spurned his cry;
“I will be free, or I will die!”
Let tyrants quake, e’en in their power,
For sure will come the awful hour
When they must give an answer, why
Heroes in chains should basely die,
Instead of rushing to the field
And counting battle ere they yield.
Source 5: Diary of a local Wilmington, NC Woman Reacting to Nat Turner
This diary was kept by Moses Ashley Curtis, who was living in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1831. In these entries from September 10–21, he describes the events that followed Nat Turner’s Rebellion — the rumors of a slave uprising in Wilmington and the surrounding counties, the terrified reactions of white residents of the city, and the retribution they exacted on the African Americans they believed responsible for the plot.
September 12, 1831 – Wilmington, NC
“Well, what?” — “Oh! — oh! Mr. C. There’s an excitement in town.” “What sort of an excitement? You are very indefinite.” “Oh! An express has come from W. saying that 20 blacks are within 20 miles of W. & advising us to be on our guard.” — “Oh! you had better go to bed. If they are as far off as that you may sleep easy tonight.” — At last the elder mistress gets the story, & a young child in the family packed the children off to bed to save them the fidgets, & heard the women express their concern & the young Miss wail most bitterly, while I sat by & tried to console by reason & ridicule. “Why the story is false in the face. Two hundred men so foolhardy as to march on such a place as W. in open day? And if they should, the volunteer company of twice their number willannihilatethem before they are within 10 miles of the town, & 50 whites coulddisperse200 blacks. What are you frightened about?” — I at last concluded to go out & learn the truth of the case. — Fear & despair, what confusion! The women were all flying or fled with their trinkets & mattresses to the garrison. I overtook one with two children with whom I walked on; & when I reached the garison there were 120 women packed in a small dwelling half dead with fear. One was stretched out on a mattress in the hysterics, a number fainted, & one was jabbering nonsense, in a fit of derangement. A few men too I noticed with tremulous voices, & solemn visages, pacing back & forth in fearful anxiety. Hang ‘em! thought I. I found but one man, a clergyman & a northerner, who was at all cheerfull & fearless. Him I addressed, but found that no arrangements had been made for the night & I went home.
Source 6 – Malcolm X Quote on Violence
“Concerning non-violence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”
~~~~~1965 Malcolm X,Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements
Source 7 – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Quote
“Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation for such method is love.” —1964 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Source or Text / What is the context (who provided source, when, what was their intent & what is going on during this time period) and subtext(what did the author imply and what did author leave out). / Key Information or philosophy Provided / Support or Criticize Nat TurnerSource 1:
Interview with Nat Turner
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Source 2:
Virginia Newspaper image depiction of Nat Turner
Source 3:
Modern comic book depiction of Nat Turner.
Source 4:
Thomas Fortune poem about Nat Turner
Source 5:
Diary of local Wilmington woman reflecting Nat Turner
Source 6 and 7:
Malcolm X and MLK Jr. reflecting on violence in social movements.