Over the next 36 hours, they were joined by as many as 60 other enslaved and free Negroes, and they killed at least 10 men, 14 women, and 31 infants and children. Each of these texts has demonstrated the power of print media to shape popular perceptions of historical fact, even as each raised critical questions of accuracy, authenticity, and community control over historical interpretations of the past. Gray used Turners voice to serve his own agenda, which was to ease the impact if the insurrections and to reaffirm slave owners as to why slavery is justifiable. Well occasionally send you promo and account related email. How are Thomas Jefferson and George Washington different? how to and when to commit this slave revolt. Now finding I had arrived to mans estate, and was a slave, and these revelations being made known to me, I began to direct my attention to this great object, to fulfil the purpose for which, by this time, I felt assured I was intended. Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher and self-styled prophet, leads the deadliest revolt of enslaved people in Virginia's history, which in just twelve hours leaves fifty-five white people dead in Southampton County. In the spring of 1831, when Turner and his co-conspirators were deciding the day for the revolt, the rebels selected Independence Day with its obvious political resonances. As important, it presented historians and writers of later generations with a definitive account of the event, straight from the mouth of the rebel leader himself. Thomas Gray interviewed Nat Turner between his conviction and execution. Both Gabriel and Nat Turner were expected to confess their guilt, provide information on means and motive, and, if necessary, help put idle rumors to rest. Gray depicted Turner as an exceptional figure, distinguished from his followers by his honesty, his commanding intelligence, and his firm belief in the righteousness of his cause. His mother (Ann Gray) died before 1820 and after this his father began distributing inheritance. Not everyone, however, loved the novelwhich inspired a backlash that culminated in the 1968 publication of William Styrons Nat Turner: Ten Black Writer Respond, in which Styron was called out for minimizing the degree to which Turner was just one of many slaves who rightfully harbored rebellious desires, among other critiques. Though he was not the attorney who represented Nat Turner, instead he interviewed him and wrote The Confessions of Nat Turner . He recounts the "Confession" in the first person, hoping thereby to simulate Turner's voice (p. 7). Although he is commonly thought of as Nat Turner's lawyer, James Strange French is the person listed in official records as Turner's lawyer. Though Turner was an educated slave, the voice portrayed in the text is of someone with a more superior education. Then, in 1967, the novelist William Styrons The Confessions of Nat Turner turned Turners story into an award-winning bestseller, which he called a meditation on history rather than a historical novel. By continuing, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. In the first of several book-length studies to dateThe Return of Nat Turner: History, Literature, and Politics in Sixties America (1992)Albert E. Stone credited Styron with leading twentieth-century readers back to the original scene of the rebellion and, in effect, resurrecting the single most powerful narrative circulating in Nat Turners own day and aftermath. The power of the Confessions of Nat Turner, Stone suggested, lay in its articulation of a basic story, to which all subsequent narratives returned. What were the motives for Nat Turner's Rebellion? In the Confessions, Nat Turner appears more a fanatic than a practical liberator. How was George Washington treated by Edward Braddock? To do so, he had to establish that the confession was voluntary, that the transcript was accurate, and that Turner was telling the truth. He asked Willwho would become the most enthusiastic of the rebelswhy he joined the revolt. There is also an expenditure of additional energy for the movement by livestock and humans (Osuji 1974; Turner et al. For example, as TIME explained in 1964, a teachers guide had to be distributed to schools to point out to educators and students that contrary to folklore, slaves hated slavery so passionately that thousands joined bloody revolts. With little explanation, he then sold his farmland and most of his enslaved laborers, moved to the county seat of Jerusalem, and embarked on a career in law. To install StudyMoose App tap Retrieved from http://studymoose.com/rhetorical-analysis-of-the-confessions-of-nat-turner-essay. In 1827 he had 23 taxable slaves. Through the open cell door, we see the barely visible features of NAT TURNER covered in chains in the small jail cell. In The Confessions of Nat Turner, Thomas R. Gray attempted to provide the public with a better understanding of the origin and progress of this dreadful conspiracy, and the motives which influences its diabolical actors (Gray, 3). His revolt hardened proslavery attitudes among Southern whites and led to new oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and assembly of slaves. Nat's first master was Samuel Turner, a wealthy Virginia aristocrat who believed in educating his slaves. A thirty-year old attorney, THOMAS R. GRAY, his clothes clean but frayed, speaks to the JAILER. Following his discovery, capture, and arrest over two months after the revolt, Turner was interviewed in his jail cell by Thomas Ruffin Gray, a wealthy Southampton lawyer and slave owner. In a field one day, he found drops of blood on the corn as though it were dew from heaven. When he saw leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters, and numbers, with the forms of men in different attitudes, portrayed in blood, he was reminded of figures I had seen in the heavens.. But he himself only ever lived in Southampton. He gave more names than any other person had. Nat Turner Anne later appeared in Benjamin's will as "Nancy." She may have been Nat Turner's mother. Without the literary-historical controversy surrounding Styrons novel, however, the 1831 Confessions of Nat Turner most likely would not be enjoying this scholarly renaissance. (1) Thomas R. Gray, met Nat Turner in prison and recorded his account of the slave rebellion in August, 1831. In February, Southampton, located in southern Virginia, experienced a solar eclipse, which Turner interpreted as a providential signal to start recruiting potential rebels. Your Privacy Rights The growing emphasis on Turner as an author in control of his own Confessionsof Nat Turner drew a sharp rebuke from legal historian Daniel S. Fabricant, who read the document as a legal and literary instrument of repression. Nat hid for several weeks but was finally found and hung. 2020 Virginia Humanities, All Rights Reserved . great uprising for it is said that God spoke to him and told him The text was taken from a jailhouse account given by Turner in 1831, shortly before his death. Nat begins to think back on his past life and tells the novel in a series of flashbacks. Any suggestion of a voluntary collaboration between Turner, a Black slave accused of insurrection, and Gray, a white lawyer with a keen interest in maintaining the Southern social order, struck Fabricanta practicing lawyeras naive and dangerously misleading. Once granted an audience with Virginia governor James Monroe, however, Gabriel confessed little or nothing of value to his captors. This novel goes beyond a mere retelling of history to show how the fettered human spirit can splinter into murderous rage when it is goaded beyond endurance, raved TIMEs critic. Working through a white recorder, Turner used the vehicle of the confessions to impose his prophetic voice on the narrative of the event. In the early 1820s he was sold to a neighbouring farmer of small means. Gray vividly describes Turners unrelenting nature as, 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 (Gray, 11). How did Shirley Chisholm describe her life? NAT TURNER, THE LEADER OF THE LATE. Such sources must be analyzed with great care.[12], Last edited on 10 February 2023, at 20:26, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Ruffin_Gray&oldid=1138646831, This page was last edited on 10 February 2023, at 20:26. Gray was deeply disturbed by the scenes he observed as the group went through the areas treaded by the rebellion. The repercussions of the rebellion in the South were severe: many slaves who had no involvement in the rebellion were murdered out of suspicion or revenge. [11], In the 1960s, William Styron published a fictional and controversial account of the Nat Turner rebellion using the same title as Gray's pamphlet, The Confessions of Nat Turner. The Nat Turner insurrection frightened slaveowners because it coincided with other insurrections in at least a half dozen places in the . How does Equiano describe the Middle Passage? If Styrons novel inspired lay readers to wonder about Turner, it also had a profound impact on scholarship, inspiring an outpouring of books, articles, and document collections that stress the multiplicity of perspectives on the event. He is a complete fanatic, or plays his part most admirably., Turners narrativepresented, Gray insisted, with little or no variation, from his own wordsgave an autobiographical history of the late insurrection and the motives behind it. Why did people like Booker T. Washington? A deeply religious person, Nat Turner believed that he had been called by God to lead African Americans out of slavery. The next day he was delivered to the county sheriff and lodged in the county jail in Jerusalem (now Courtland), Virginia. A series of divine occurrences in Turners childhood confirmed his belief that he was intended for some great purpose and that he would surely be a prophet (Gray, 5). Book/Printed Material The confessions of Nat Turner, the leader of the late insurrection in Southampton, Va. as fully and voluntarily made to Thomas R. Gray, in the prison where he was confined, and acknowledged by him to be such when read before the court of Southampton: with the certificate, under seal of the court convened at Jerusalem, Nov. 5, 1831, for his trial. Turner describes two other ways that God communicated with him. ". Why was john brown viewed differently than Nat Turner? The obvious inconsistency between the voice supposedly speaking and the actual language used in this document lessens its authenticity. 100 Charlottesville, VA 22903 (434) 924-3296. Turner had many reasons for revolting, but his most important motive was his hatred of slavery and the suffering his people had to endure. . He was born sometime in the early 1800s, the exact date is unknown. 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