Nat Turner ( born October 2, 1800 - November 11, 1831 ) is an American black slave who led the rebellion of slaves in Virginia on August 21, 1831, which killed 60 white people and at least 100 black slaves [3] , - the largest death toll in one Uprising before the American Civil War in the southern United States.
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He gathered supporters in Southampton, Virginia. Turner was later found guilty, sentenced to death and hanged , after which his skin was torn off [4] , and one fanatic made a purse out of his scrotum. Subsequently, the American government executed 56 black slaves accused of participating in the Turner uprising. Two hundred blacks were beaten and killed by white militias. In Virginia and other southern states, government bodies have enacted new laws prohibiting the education of slaves and free blacks, restricting freedom of assembly and other civil rights of free blacks, and have required white officials to attend blacks for worship.
Content
- 1 Early life
- 2 Rebellion
- 3 Capture and execution
- 4 The Image of Nat Turner in Fiction and Cinema
- 5 notes
- 6 Literature
- 7 References
Early life
At birth, Turner's owner recorded only his name, Nat, although he may have had a surname in the ranks of slaves. In accordance with generally accepted practice, White turned to him by the name of his owner, Samuel Turner [5] . This practice has been adopted by historians. Turner knew little about his background: his father was believed to have escaped from slavery when Turner was a little boy. Turner stayed with his paternal grandmother, Old Bridget, who was also enslaved to Samuel Turner. Turner's grandmother came from Coromancy (see en: Coromantee ) - a people living in the territory of modern Ghana , whose representatives were often sold into slavery in America; their groups are known for rebellion of slaves. She was captured in Africa at thirteen and sent to America.
Turner spent his life in Southampton County, Virginia, a place inhabited primarily by blacks.
Turner was distinguished by his intellect from childhood: he learned to read and write at a fairly early age. Being deeply religious, Nat often fasted, prayed, or was immersed in reading Bible stories. He allegedly often visited visions, which he interpreted as messages from God. These visions significantly affected his life: for example, when Turner was 22 years old, he escaped from his owner, but returned a month after he saw the vision. Turner often provided services to Baptists , preaching the Bible among his fellow slaves, who called him the "prophet." Turner also had an influence on white people, and in the case of a certain Ethelred T. Brantley, Turner allegedly was able to convince him to stop living a vicious life [6] .
By the beginning of 1828, Turner was sure that he "was ordained for some great purposes in the hands of the Almighty." While working in the field of his owner, May 12, Turner “heard a loud noise in the heavens,” and then the alleged spirit that spoke to him. Turner was convinced that God had given him the task of “killing ... enemies with their own weapons” [7] . Turner's first associates were four other slaves - Henry, Hark, Nelson and Sam.
Starting in February 1831, Turner came to the conclusion that certain atmospheric phenomena should be interpreted as a sign that he should begin preparations for an uprising against slaveholders.
On February 12, 1831, there was a solar eclipse in Virginia. Turner saw in this a black man’s hand covering the sun, and he accepted this vision as a sign. The uprising was originally scheduled for July 4, Independence Day, but was delayed due to the need for additional discussions between him and his followers and in connection with his illness. On August 7, another solar eclipse occurred, during which the sun appeared bluish-green (possibly due to the atmosphere of volcanic ash that fell during the eruption of St. Helens ). Turner took this as a final signal, and two weeks later, on August 21, he began an uprising [8] .
Rebellion
Turner began the uprising on August 21, 1831 with the release of several trusted slaves. The rebels moved from house to house, freeing slaves and killing their masters. The rebels ultimately included more than 70 enslaved and free blacks.
Since the rebels did not want to give out their presence to anyone at the time of their attacks, they initially used knives, axes and blunt objects, rather than firearms. The uprising did not divide the victims by age or gender, until it was determined that the goals of the rebellion had been fully achieved. Nat Turner confessed to the murder of only one of the victims of the uprising - Margret Whitehead, whom he killed by striking a board from the hedge [5] .
Before the white militias were able to retaliate, the rebels killed 60 men, women and children [9] . They spared several houses of the poor, because Turner believed that they live no better than blacks [9] . Turner also believed that revolutionary violence would serve to awaken the attitude of whites to the reality of a slave-owning society, which is characterized by cruelty. Turner later said that he would like to spread “horror and anxiety” among whites [10] .
Capture and Execution
The uprising was crushed for two days, but Turner hid until October 30, when he was found hidden in a hole covered with boards from the fence. On November 5, 1831, he was convicted, convicted, and sentenced to death. Turner was hanged on November 11 in the city of Jerusalem (now Cortland), Virginia. He was skinned, beheaded and quartered.
In total, after the uprising in Southampton and the related crimes, 45 slaves were indicted, including Turner himself, and 5 free blacks. Of the 45 slaves accused, 15 were acquitted. Of the 30 convicts, 18 were hanged, and 12 received a pardon and were sold by state authorities. Of the 5 free blacks convicted of participating in the uprising, one was hanged, and the rest were acquitted [11] .
After Turner was executed, the local lawyer, Thomas Ruffin Gray, published “Nat Turner Confessions”, obtained in part from studies conducted while Turner was on the run, and in part from conversations with prisoner Turner before the trial. This work is the main historical document about Nat Turner, although its reliability is called into question by some American historians [12] [13] .
The Image of Nat Turner in Fiction and Film
Harriet Beecher Stowe published The Confessions of Nat Turner as an appendix to her novel Dred, or The Tale of the Great Miserable Swamp ( Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, 1856, Russian translation of 1857). The dreadlock, the protagonist of the novel, is a runaway slave and religious fanatic who helps other runaway slaves and plot for rebellion. It combines the features of Nat Turner and Denmark Wessy [14] .
The novel of William Styron's “ Confessions of Nat Turner ” ( The Confessions of Nat Turner , 1967, Pulitzer Prize for 1986, Russian translation 2005) contains numerous paintings of the brutal oppression of slaves and retaliatory violence during the uprising. The book caused heated debate, the author’s accusations of racism and an attempt to distort the image of a real historical person [15] . In response to the novel, a collective collection of essays “Nat Turner” by William Styron was published. The Objections of Ten Black Writers ”( Willian Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner : Ten Black Writers Respond , 1968) [12] .
Turner's uprising is shown in the 5th episode of the television movie Roots ( Roots , 1977), based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley (1976) [16] , which is an anachronism , since the events in this series take place in 1841, and the uprising took place in 1831 m. In the book itself, as well as in the new film adaptation (2016) [17] , references to the uprising date back to 1831.
In 2016, the historical film The Birth of a Nation was shot in the United States about the Turner uprising, whose role is played by Nate Parker , who is also a director and scriptwriter [18] .
Notes
- ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica
- ↑ SNAC - 2010.
- ↑ Breen Patrick H. The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt. Oxford University Press, 2015 .-- P. 98, 231.
- ↑ French Scot . The Rebellious Slave: Nat Turner in American Memory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004 .-- P. 278-279.
- ↑ 1 2 Gray White, Deborah. Freedom on my mind: A history of African Americans. New York Bedford / St. Martin's, 2013 .-- P.225
- ↑ Gray, Thomas Ruffin . The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrections in Southampton, Va. Baltimore, Maryland: Lucas & Deaver, 1831 .-- P. 7-9, 11.
- ↑ Gray, Thomas Ruffin , p. 11.
- ↑ Allmendinger Jr., David F. Nat Turner and the Rising in Southampton County. Baltimore, MD, John Hopkins University Press, 2014 .-- P. 21-22, 97-98
- ↑ 1 2 Oates, Stephen . Children of Darkness. // American Heritage. October 1973. Volume 24, Issue 6. Retrieved May 27, 2016
- ↑ Wimbush Vincent L .; ed. Theorizing Scriptures: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon. Rutgers University Press, 2008 .-- P. 83-85.
- ↑ Gordon, III, Walter L. The Nat Turner Insurrection Trials: A Mystic Chord Resonates Today. Booksurge, 2009 .-- P. 75, 92.
- ↑ 1 2 Zlobin G. Styron, William. In: US Writers. Brief creative biographies. M., Rainbow, 1990, p. 415.
- ↑ Fornal, Justin. Nat Turner's Slave Uprising Left Complex Legacy . National Geographic (October 5, 2016). Date of treatment May 10, 2017.
- ↑ Kevin Cherry. Summary of "Dred". Documenting the American South. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- ↑ The Case Against Styron's Nat Turner . Ebony , October 1968.
- ↑ Roots . 1977. Internet Movie Database.
- ↑ Roots , 2016. Internet Movie Database.
- ↑ The Birth of a Nation . Internet Movie Database.
Literature
- Herbert Aptheker . American Negro Slave Revolts . 5th edition. New York: International Publishers, 1983 (1943).
- Herbert Aptheker. Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion . New York: Humanities Press, 1966.
- Scot French. The Rebellious Slave: Nat Turner in American Memory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 2004.
- William Lloyd Garrison, The Insurrection , The Liberator , (September 3, 1831). A contemporary abolitionist's reaction to news of the rebellion.
- Walter L. Gordon III. The Nat Turner Insurrection Trials: A Mystic Chord Resonates Today (Booksurge, 2009).
- Thomas R. Gray, The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrections in Southampton, Va . Baltimore: Lucas & Deaver, 1831. Available online.
- William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner , Random House Inc, 1993, ISBN 0-679-73663-8
- Stephen B. Oates, The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion . New York: HarperPerennial, 1990 (1975).
- Brodhead, Richard H. "Millennium, Prophecy and the Energies of Social Transformation: The Case of Nat Turner," in A. Amanat and M. Bernhardsson (eds.), Imagining the End: Visions of Apocalypse from the Ancient Middle East to Modern America (London, IB Tauris, 2002), 212-233.
- Kenneth S. Greenberg, ed. Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory . New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Junius P. Rodriguez, ed. Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion . Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006.
- Ely, Mike. The Slave Rebellion of General Nat Turner . Kasama Project. December 2007
Links
- Nat Turner and his trip to Jerusalem
- The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Va. Baltimore: TR Gray, 1831
- Nat Turner's Rebellion . Africans in America, PBS
- Thomas Ruffin Gray, The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831) online edition
- Nat Turner: Lightning Rod on the American Heritage
- Nat Turner Unchained. An independent feature film about the Nat Turner revolt (English)