The man responsible for the most lethal slave uprising in the history of the United States, in none other than enslaved preacher and self styled prophet Nat Turner. Overtime his legacy has portrayed him as both a hero and a villain, but what he stood for could not be more clear. To free those in bondage throughout the slave holding south, Nat Turner became the leader of the only effective and sustained slave rebellion in the United States of America.
Nat Turner was born into slavery on October 2, 1800, in Southhampton County, Virginia. His family's owner Benjamin Turner recorded young Turner as "Nat", when he died in 1810 Benjamin's son Samuel inherited Nat as his property. At a very young age Nat was taught the about the horrors of slavery in a community that was predominately black, and began educating himself in Christianity.
Turner's passion for Christianity lead him to become a deeply religious preacher. He gained respect from many blacks and whites in Southampton County for his remarkable intellect and phenomenal ministry skills. Through this he convinced many to support his anti slavery views, giving him a sense of power and clout in his community.
What Nat Turner is most known for however is the violent slave rebellion that he lead on August 21, 1831. His motivation and goal of this rebellion were quite simple and obvious. However what lead to these motivations were the product of his Christian and ministry lifestyle.
Deeply religious Turner had a vision that gave him an incentive to launch the slave rebellion. In the year 1825, he had heard divine voices and started being visions, interpreting them as messages. In one vision, he describes what he saw as black and white spirits engaged in conflict, with a darkened sun overseeing the battle.
In his rebellion he six of his owners family and killed an estimated 55 white people, with the help of 75 other enslaved people. As he took up weapons, supplies, and horses, he started to become a large threat to the white nation and was pursued by numerous bounty hunters. On August 23, 1831 his rebellion came to a halt, as his rebellion was impeded at Belmont Plantation.
Following this defeat, Nat Turner knew that if slavery had any hope of being forcefully abolished he had to hide himself and restart. He hid in the woods for six weeks until on October 30th he was caught and taken to a county jail in Jerusalem. When he was tried he confessed to all of his actions without regret, shortly after he was convicted and sentenced to death. Twelve days after he was caught on November 11th, he was hung in the very city he aspired to reach.
The result of his actions had a negative influence in this era, but a positive one in the coming ones. Slave masters all around began to fear their slaves in a sense, and the majority of them enforced stricter rules on their property to ensure that this sort of event would not take place under their jurisdiction. It destroyed the falsehood that slaves content to be property, and caused Southern whites to past laws that prohibited the education, assembly, and movement of slaves.
Nat Turner's rebellion became a hot talking point before one of the most defining era's in American history, the Civil War. In the Virginia Slavery Debate to abolish the institution, Nat Turners rebellion was one of the most public focused and sustained discussion of slavery in any southern state. Abolitionist grew further in number by the day not only because they wanted to end the slavery, but because they did not want to see blacks in their state out of a fear for their safety.
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/nat-
turnerhttps://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/experience/religion/spotlight.htmlhttps://www.washingtonpos
t.com/history/2019/06/01/birthplace-american-slavery-debated-abolishing-it-after-nat-turners-bloody-revolt/
No comments:
Post a Comment