The Confession Of Nat Turner's Life

Nat Turner Assignment
“Though it is a painful fact that most Negroes are hopelessly docile, many of them are filled with fury, and the unctuous coating of flattery which surrounds and encases that fury is but a form of self-preservation.”, a famous quote by “The Confession of Nat Turner “What is the Confession of Nat Turner? Well it all start with knowing who is Nat Turner?
Nat Turner is a slave man that was born on October 2, 1800 on a Southampton County plantation. When Turner was small, he has figured that he might have a special talent because he could describe what the life is like before he was born. Nat’s mother and grandmother told him that he was born with a great purpose. After hearing, what his mother and grandmother have said, he has grown deeply into religious and spent most of his time reading bible, praying and fasting. Over the year, Turner had worked for the Travis family. In 1825, Turner had a vision that he could see a bloody conflict between the black and white spirits. Then, in 1831, he asked other slaves to join his revolt against white slaves’ owners as they killed the Travis family.

This is how he become the slave rebellion leader as he leads many slaves to fight for the white owners.
While reading the “Neighborhoods and Nat Turner” article by Anthony E.

Kaye, we have an excellent perspectives of what Nat Turner’s life is like as he become today saying of “The bloody revolt slave leader in the history”. Since he was known as “The bloody revolt slave leader”, it overthrown the fear for many people, including John Hampden Pleasants, who is a Newspaper Editor. Pleasants express his concern about the uprising being the product of more than just one neighborhood because it could restrict the limits to the neighborhood and lead consequence to the other countries. This has led to the subject of huge debate from the neighborhood. He also mentions that Turner’s rebellion is a “mischief perpetrated” because it bring numbers of the negroes to a thousand or 1200 mean, which is like a huge amount of

people.
Pleasants are not the only one who pay attention to Turner’s rebellion. Thomas R. Gray, is another man that interviewed Turner and wrote about his confessions. According to Dr.Kaye , Gray has understood that neighborhood were an important factor in the rebellion and he is not the first one to understand it because of the origin of the revolt from Jerusalem. Gray also contribute to Pleasant’s newspaper as he describes the uprising term of “neighborhood”. Dr.Kaye then explained the neighborhood had made Turner into a prophet.
Being as a prophet, there are some things that Turner dislike from. According to Dr.Kaye, church is not a place for Turner’s spiritual gifts because it could be a signs of authentic conversion. Turner did not want to entangled himself with organized churches because he displayed a self-control of evangelical manhood. He also would want to be in recognition. If Turner had embraced organized the religion and the church, then the white overseers will not put imprimatur on its content and the church patriarchs will not appreciate the acts of grace.
With the recognition, he would want the neighborhood to follow him. Turner had such an extensive neighborhood network of followers because of the contribute he did to help the slaves. He has shaped the slave society across the south and they have work together to get their freedom. As a reader, we might see slaves’ society as something like “monolithic” because we assume that they work together and form a large and powerful group, but this is incorrect. According to Dr.Kaye, slave society divided up and ties their own family, work, sociability, and struggle.
After reading the article, it shows us a great aspect and understanding of slave resistance because of the slaves like Nat Turner. He does not want to be as a slave and work for the white forever in their lifetime. Turner’s rebellion led many slaves to escape from the work in the plantation and it changes the whole history for them. Dr.Kaye’s argument here probably want us to understand how slaves has gained their own freedom because of a great leader like Nat Turner that help them to escape the fate of working in the plantation every day in their lifetime. It is worthy of historical study and publication because it gives us better understanding of how people today are equal to each other and they are now known as “African American”. But, what happen after Turner’s rebellion arose from the solidarity of neighborhoods as it broke apart on the shoals between them? Did they really get what they want and flee to the kind of life they want? Just like the quote on the beginning, it is painful for Negros to feel hopeless and many of them is filled with self-preservation because they are finding a light ahead of them.