Nat Turner’s rebellion created an atmosphere of fear and paranoia among many Whites and as a result needs recognition as a contributing factor to the outbreak of the Snow Riot in D.C. Although Nat Turner’s revolt happened in 1831, four years on the it’s influence and the atmosphere of paranoia created it by it were still very much present in American and more specifically D.C. This becomes clear when considering the facts of the revolt which began on August 22, 1831, when Nat Turner and some fellow slaves snuck into their master's house and killed him and his family before moving from plantation to plantation doing the same to other White families. While the revolt was put down and the seventy slaves with Turner were either arrested or killed and Turner himself was hung two months after the fact, their revolt caused many White communities to feel great fear and paranoia. …show more content…
This lack of mercy towards women and children as well as the scale of people killed struck fear in the hearts of many White Americans. In reaction to this revolt, White Americans responded in a rather unsurprising manner by seeking vengeance to the extent that “In a little more than one day 120 Negroes were killed.” While all manner of Black persons both freed and enslaved were killed, tortured, and injured by these Whites who sought vengeance for Turner’s revolt. So in terms of racial tension, it is not beggars belief to say that racial tensions skyrocketed as a result of the revolt and subsequent actions taken by White. In addition, it is not bold to make a claim that these tensions had not cooled by 1835 and thus had some sort of impact on the beginning and the brutality with which Whites acted during the Snow
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
Nat Turner planned a slave revolt in which himself and 80 slaves went from farm to farm and killed 60 whites. They killed several women and children. After the revolt, Turner and 17 other rebels were executed.
The Fires of Jubilee, by Stephen B. Oates, tells an account of Nat Turner’s rebellion. Beginning with Nat’s early life and finally ending with the legacy his execution left the world, Oates paints a historical rending of those fateful days. The Confessions of Nat Turner by Thomas R. Gray and approved by Nat himself is among Oates’ chief sources. Oates is known as a reputable historian through his other works, and has strong credentials however, in the case of The Fires of Jubilee there are some limitations. It is, therefore, worth analyzing Oates’ interpretation for reliability. In doing so one sees that The Fires of Jubilee, because of its weak use of citations, failure to alert the audience of assumed details and the way in which Oates handles the chief source Confessions, quickly begins to shift from a decently steadfast description to an untrustworthy and unreliable account.
After careful consideration, I have decided to use the books dedicated to David Walker’s Appeal and The Confessions of Nat Turner and compare their similarities and differences. It is interesting to see how writings which has the same purpose of liberating enslaved Black people can be interpreted so differently, especially in the matter of who was reading them. Akin to how White people reacted to Turner’s Rebellion, which actually had promising results while most would see the immediate backlashes and to which I intend to explain more. As most would put emphasis on the Confession itself, I assume, I decided to focus more on the reactions and related documents regarding the Rebellion.
..., with its repressive slave controls, police measures, and toughened military forces, the Old South had devised a slave system oppressive enough to make organized rebellion all but impossible. Even so , Southern whites in the antebellum period never forgot nat Turner and the violence he unleashed in southeastern Virginia. For antebellum blacks- and for their descendants- the name of Nat Turner took on a profoundly different connotation. He became a legendary black hero- especially in southeastern Virginia, where blacks enshrined his name in an oral tradition that still flourishes today. They regard Nat's rebellion as the "First War" against slavery and the Civil War as the second. So in death Nat achieved a kind of victory denied him in life- he became a martyred soldier of slave liberation who broke his chains and murdered whites because slavery had murdered Negroes.
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...
If I were to ask you what you knew about W.E.B. Du Bois and the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, what would your answer be? You might state the obvious and say that there was a race war in Atlanta that affected many people including Du Bois but do you know the depth of the matter? The 1900’s was a powerful and intriguing time period in history that included events from the assassination of William McKinley to the infamous World Wars. While events such as these took the nation by storm there were other affairs that were rattling the people of America, specifically those in the South, that became known as the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot. The Atlanta Race riot began on September 22 and ended on September 24, 1906. American history students should read this
These 5 men decided on to begin their hunt on July 4th. But then Turner fell ill that day and so the date had to be pushed off until a later date. A little over a month past and then the faithfully day for the revolt came, August 21 1831. He gathered up had men and began the revolt. During this revolt, they did not care if you were man, woman, or child. If you were part of a family that owned a plantation with slaves on it, you would be a target. The first people that were targeted were Joseph Travis and his family, they were Nat Turner’s currently master. After this point they went from plantation to plantation kills any white person they saw and freeing all the slaves too. An article by an unknown author explains the ending moments:
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
As it was stated in the book, many factors led up to the race riots of 1919. The single incident was a highpoint. It more or less triggered all of the actions and feelings that were preceded in the years leading up to the riot. It is amazing how the differences of a race can change in a few years. Also the importance of little factors that can lead up to becoming huge and having great implications on actions. For blacks and whites both the riot was just a built up accumulation of hostility that has been going on for quite some time. One thing can be said though that the Chicago incidents seem to be the more ruthless and aggressive when compared to others. It may have been because of the blacks’ resiliency not to lie down and to fight back. A lot of the time it causes even more hostility to brew when compared to a nonviolent approach. Nevertheless, the Chicago riots and the incidents that led up to it were monumental in status.
Nat Turner's Rebellion was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831. Led by Nat Turner, rebel slaves killed anywhere from 55 to 65 people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the American South. The rebellion was put down within a few days, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterwards. The rebellion was effectively suppressed at Belmont Plantation on the morning of August 23, 1831.
Nat Turner was born to a life of slavery in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1800. The state of Virginia had some diverse reactions toward slavery. Stephen B. Oates writes in his article "Children of Darkness" that "By southern white standards, enlightened benevolence did exist in Southampton County- and it existed in the rest of the state, too" (Oates, "Children" 42). There were some schools established for slave children, and religious meetings were openly allowed. Governor John Floyd was against the institution of slavery. The Fires of Jubilee, a book describing Turner's rebellion, explains his feelings on the subject. "He wanted slavery to be gradually abolished in Virginia and all the blacks colonized somewhere else, leaving the Old Dominion an unadulterated white man's paradise" (Oates, Fires 64). The unrest among slaves in Virginia was more evident than in the deep South because they had been given a small taste of freedom through activities like school and religion, but no sign that slavery would be abolished appeared. Instead, the economy of Virginia was the most important discussion in every session of the legislature. According to Boorstin and Kelley's History of the United States, "Blacks in some southern states outnumbered the whites, and there was no way for state leaders to handle this situation except by keeping the blacks in slavery" (Boorstin and Kelley 194). Nat Turner would grow up with a sense of frustration, not being able to see the end to the terrible injustice of slavery.
The Chicago riot was the most serious of the multiple that happened during the Progressive Era. The riot started on July 27th after a seventeen year old African American, Eugene Williams, did not know what he was doing and obliviously crossed the boundary of a city beach. Consequently, a white man on the beach began stoning him. Williams, exhausted, could not get himself out of the water and eventually drowned. The police officer at the scene refused to listen to eyewitness accounts and restrained from arresting the white man. With this in mind, African Americans attacked the police officer. As word spread of the violence, and the accounts distorted themselves, almost all areas in the city, black and white neighborhoods, became informed. By Monday morning, everyone went to work and went about their business as usual, but on their way home, African Americans were pulled from trolleys and beaten, stabbed, and shot by white “ruffians”. Whites raided the black neighborhoods and shot people from their cars randomly, as well as threw rocks at their windows. In retaliation, African Americans mounted sniper ambushes and physically fought back. Despite the call to the Illinois militia to help the Chicago police on the fourth day, the rioting did not subside until the sixth day. Even then, thirty eight
The Tulsa race riot changed the course of American history by actively expressing African American views on white supremacy. Certainly I feel with the available facts in this research paper, that the whites were the aggressors for the events leading up to the Tulsa race riot and the start of the Tulsa race riot. African Americans were simply there to stand up against the white supremacy and to provide the African Americans Tulsa their freedom and equal justice.
Its be told that after the rebellion about 100-200 African Americans were killed. (packet) Not to long after this on October 30, 1831 Tuner was captured. (google) Turner was allowed to go to court and have a trail, which ended November 11, 1831. He pled not guilty because the believed he was called by God. (google) Turner was found guilty and was hung, and the same went got the ones that where involved.(packet)