The Confessions of Nat Turner Throughout history people have published articles and books in order to sway the public to their side. Rulers such as Stalin and Mao used propaganda to keep themselves in power; people such as Thomas Paine used articles in order to start revolution. Thomas R. Gray, author of The Confessions of Nat Turner, had that power when he interviewed Turner. Although The Confessions of Nat Turner is supposedly the words of Turner himself, we have no way to confirm that Gray did not show the information in order to gain greater benefit from it. It is known that the interviewer, Thomas R. Gray, was struggling financially. It is possible that he embellished the story in order to make the reading more dramatic; or it is also possible that Gray harbored feelings against Turner because of racial hatred of the time or because of the murders themselves, and that this hatred influenced the way he portrayed Turner's confession. Thomas R. Gray, during the time of the interview, was a man of thirty-one years of age and was not very successful in his practice as a lawyer and a farmer. Gradually having to sell off his land bit by bit and many of his slaves, Gray tried to find other occupations that might pay higher than his current job. When the Nat Turner rebellion occurred, Gray had to have realized how big this story was. Not only had one of the biggest slave rebellions in American history just occurred, but also the authorities had the main instigator alive in a prison cell. Gray probably realized controversy would erupt over what Turner had to say, and so he left for Jerusalem, Virginia right away to interview Turn... ... middle of paper ... ...acts of the number dead are hard to change. One cannot just make up a dead person; someone is bound to find out. Gray even informs the audience before they read the book that although some of the words might not exactly be Turner's, they were basically what he said. "I determined for the gratification of public curiosity to commit his statements to writing, and publish them, with little or no variation, from his own words."[4] Gray freely admits that he may have changed the wording of some of what Turner said, but the real meat of the story is still unchanged. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] A Bedford Series, The Confessions of Nat Turner (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1996), 50 [2] A Bedford Series, 54 [3] A Bedford Series, 50 [4] A Bedford Series, 40
It could be argued that the revolt was entirely reactionary and in response to the myriad of abuses propagated by the white, slave-holding society (Garrison). Slaves were treated as little more than chattel – subject to the caprice and whims of their owners. In one infamous case, a slave woman was executed for killing her master when he attempted to rape her. As a slave, the court literally did not recognize her as a woman but only as an item to be used and abused (Foner 410). Such callous treatment is difficult to fathom, and perhaps helps to put the slave’s rebellion into context; however, Turner’s actions were highly reprehensible in that his slaughter was not confined to those who had perpetrated these abuses, but was instead an indiscriminate massacre of the innocent and the guilty
Greenberg, Kenneth S. ed., The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents. New York: Bedford Books, 1996.
Unfortunantly for the new leaders of the nation, they were left with many issues that challenged American ideals, including slavery. 1831 was a very pivotal year for the beginning of the abolishment of slavery. Soon after the eclipse, fear spread throughout Virginia of a possible slave rebellion. Eventhough some slave owners treated their slaves well, it did not mean they were safe from attack. On August 22, Nat Turner killed his master along with his family, the first account of slave rebellion in history. Turner’s Rebellion instilled fear in southern slave owners that a planned attack could occur at any moment (19). Thomas R. Gray, a slave owner and lawyer interviewed the slaves behind bars. He spoke with Turner for three day...
Conflicted Often, people go through changes in their lives based on experiences. Former KKK member, Claiborne Ellis would be one of those people whose experiences changed his mentality. Certainly, having conflicted ideas about other races, is a challenge in itself. So, after reading Why I quit the Klan, I could not imagine a racist honestly changing his view on his personal feelings on other races.
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, both pride and excessive pride influence the characters throughout the play. Pride is a sense of one's dignity and worth. Excessive pride is being overly confident of one's own self worth. Throughout, pride influences the actions, reactions, and emotions of the characters in such ways to establish the outcome of the story. Three characters are impelled by their pride. Hale, who takes pride in his ability to detect witchcraft; Elizabeth Proctor, whose pride makes forgiving her husband difficult; Proctor, whose excessive pride causes him to overlook reality and the truth.
Turner was a very religious man, which influenced his views on slavery. He “studiously avoided mixing in society and wrapped himself in mystery, devoting his time to fasting and praying.” In 1821, Turner ran away from his first master, Samuel Turner, but returned 30 days afterwards because of a religious vision. The Spirit told him to “return to the service of my earthly master.” (pbs.org) After three years, Nat Turner had another vision where he saw lights in the sky. Afterwards he “discovered drops o...
As Elie Wiesel once stated, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” (“Elie Wiesel Quote”). Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, which discusses criminal justice and its role in mass incarceration, promotes a similar idea regarding silence when America’s racial caste system needs to be ended; however, Alexander promotes times when silence would actually be better for “the tormented.” The role of silence and lack of silence in the criminal justice system both contribute to wrongly accused individuals and growing populations behind bars.
Nat Turner's belief that he was a mystic, born for some great purpose; a spiritual savior, chosen to lead Black slaves to freedom, justified his bloody rebellion against slave owners in Virginia. His actions did not so much spring from the fact that members of his family had been beaten, separated or sold, but rather from his own deep sense of freedom spoken in the Bible. From the time Nat Turner was four-years-old, he had been recognized as intelligent, able to understand beyond his years. He continued to search for religious truth and began to have visions or signs of being called by God. By the time Nat Turner reached manhood, the path his life would take was clear; his destiny would be to bring his fellow slaves out of bondage.
In 1950 J.D. Salenger captures one of society’s tragedies, the breakdown of a teenager, when he wrote The Catcher In The Rye. Holden Caulfield, a fickle “man” is not even a man at all. His unnecessary urge to lie to avoid confrontation defeats manhood. Holden has not matured and is unable to deal with the responsibility of living on his owe. He childishly uses a hunter’s hat to disguise him self from others. The truth of his life is sad and soon leads to his being institutionalized. He tries to escape the truth with his criticisms. Knowing he will never meet his parents’ expectations, his only true friend is his eight-year-old sister Phoebe, to whom Holden tells that he really wants to be ‘the catcher in the rye”. Holden admits his only truth and shows that Phoebe is his only friend. Another form of escape for Holden is his acting, which he uses to excuse the past. Holden has tried to lie, hide, and blame his way through life; when he finds that it is not the answer he collapses.
He is a myth due to the lack of historical evidence known about him. Although Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner shaped the views of the American population, many different views about Nat Turner are perceived. The views on Nat Turner varied from a hero of oppressed people, murderer of innocent women and children, and a powerful religious leader. William Styron was not a racist, he portrayed the thoughts, actions, and dialect of an African American male during that period in American History. Styron is heavily critiqued over the fact that he is a white male, but he lived in Virginia and he saw and heard about the horrors that went on there when slavery was going on in the south. Though Styron’s novel shaped the way Americans perceived the event, Styron did not intend the story to make such a large impact on the society’s views, even though it ended up being very controversial. Although many people have different opinions on Nat Turner, he will still remain one of the most mysterious historical figures in American
Reading my first book for this class, I was really looking forward to it. The book, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, is an interesting book because it touches base on mass incarceration and the caste system. Figuring out that society is on a war on drugs and racism in the justice system is upsetting, and yet interesting. Michelle does a really nice job in organizing the book and presenting the plot. The fact that this book informs and explains arguments, what is happening with the justices system is complete true. Our lives would look complete different; and some of her points are happening. People do not realize getting incarcerated will take some of rights away. This essay will reflect on the book its self, answer questions,
The point that I am trying to prove with my historical investigation is: How did Nat Turner’s rebellion lead to the commencement of the Civil War in the United States thirty years after the insurrection took place. In order to answer this, one must comprehend why the Southampton Insurrection occurred, the influence it left on people and the history of the United States, and the reasons as to why the Civil War was fought. After extensive research, two of my most valuable sources I used were Scot French’s historical book The Rebellious Slave Nat Turner in American Memory and the Rebecca Vaughan House’s project on Nat Turner/1831 Southampton Insurrection Trial & restoration of the Rebecca Vaughan House, located on the Museum of Southampton History.
Lynch is a writer and teacher in Northern New Mexico. In the following essay, she examines ways that the text of The Souls of Black Folk embodies Du Bois' experience of duality as well as his "people's."
The topic of slavery in the United States has always been controversial, as many people living in the South were supportive of it and many people living in the North were against it. Even though it was abolished by the Civil War before the start of the 20th century, there are still different views on the subject today. Written in 1853, the book Twelve Years a Slave is a first person account of what it was like for Solomon Northup to be taken captive from his free life in the North and sold to a plantation as a slave in the South, and his struggle to regain his freedom. Through writing about themes of namelessness, inhumanity, suffering, distrust, defiance, and the desire for freedom, Northup was able to expose the experiences and realities of slavery.
Thomas Grey narrates in first person, hoping that it would imitate Turner’s own voice and his own statements. Nat Turner committed horrendous crimes against the white slave owners. He was living with a white man named Mr. Joseph Travis. Turner claims he was a good man to him, and he could not complain about the way he was treated by Mr. Travis.