Essay On Nat Turner's Rebellion

Nat Turners rebellion was not only influential to African American slaves resisting slavery, but it was also one of the factors that lead Virginia to secession. There were many key factors that influenced Virginia’s secession from the union during the civil war. One of these key factors was the population of Virginia struggled with different views on slavery. Some of the state’s population wanted to end slavery and some wanted to keep the slavery system in Virginia. Some people did not support the secession of Virginia because they wanted to abolish slavery. Some of the people that wanted to abolish slavery believed it was immoral, however a majority of the people that wanted to abolish slavery did it because they feared the consequences of

keeping Virginia a slave state. Many people believed that until slavery was abolished they would be vulnerable to African American rebellions and uprisings that could begin because of the influence of the Nat Turner rebellion. However, a lot of people wanted to keep slavery for finical benefit, black control and because they did not want to have free blacks in their society.

As a result when Virginia was meeting to discuss the possible secession of the state from the confederacy, they decided to see if African Americans would be willing to go back to Africa instead of living in their state. Recolonization of blacks was a very popular idea during the late eighteen hundreds because many people supported the abolishment of slavery, but did not want African Americans to coexist with the white population. However, most African Americans did not want to go back to Africa because they had never been there, they did not speak the language, and they were the primary labor force that created much of America during their time as slaves and their ancestors time held as slaves. This fear of coexisting with African Americans, along with the fear that the Nat turner rebellion installed in many white people were two large factors that lead to Virginia succeeding from the Union. In April 1860, Virginia decided to succeed from the Union because they thought slavery was in danger and that black people would not be able to be controlled which would cause more uprisings such as the Nat Turner

rebellion. A professor William freehling author of ‘Road to Disunion’ said that when Virginia succeeded their argument was that “we have succeeded, we have succeeded because we think slavery is in danger, we think if slavery is in danger then black control is in danger, and the blacks will riot in the south unless we succeed from Lincolns immediate menace to slavery.” This is important to understand how Nat turner’s rebellion was an influential part of Virginia’s succession from the Union. Due to whites’ fear of African American uprisings such as Nat Turners, they decided to succeed from the Union.