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Nat Turner life essay
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Nat Turner was born into slavery, in South Hampton County, on October 2nd, 1800. He was a preacher that believed he was sent to lead people out of slavery. On August 21st, 1831, he led one of the most violent slave rebellions in American history. After six weeks in hiding, he was caught and hung for the atrocities carried out under his direction. The purpose of his rebellion was to help end slavery, but the results the slaves faced were the complete opposite.
He was born on the Virginia plantation of Benjamin Turner. On his plantation he was allowed to be taught how to read, write, and learned about religion. Turner claimed that as a child he was able to describe things that happened before he was born, resulting in people claiming that “he surely would be a prophet” (Gray). Turner worked on many different plantations before his rebellion. In 1821, he ran away from Samuel Turner’s plantation, only to return thirty days later after he received a sign from god that he would need to retaliate against his owners (Oates). After Samuel Turner’s death, Nat was sent to live with Thomas Moore. Soon after, Moore died, so Turner was left with his widow, who later married John Travis. After his widowed owner married Travis, she moved Nat to work on Travis’s plantation, where Turner would soon plan his rebellion.
Turner truly believed that he was a prophet of God. In 1825, Turner had a premonition from God of a forthcoming bloody conflict between black and white spirits (The Legacy of Nat Turner 1801-1831). Three years later, he received what he believed to be another message from God. Turner claimed, "The Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke, he had borne for the sins of m...
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...e is little known about Nat Turner, he is one of the most heroic men in early American history. His bravery, in leading the Rebellion, showed the desperateness of the slaves in desiring the end of slavery. The rebellion may have caused stricter laws on slaves, but ultimately it was the right step in gaining slaves freedom.
Works Cited
Oates, Stephen. The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion. New York: HarperCollins, 1990. Print.
Gray, R. Thomas. The Confessions of Nat Turner. Baltimore: Lucas & Deaver, 1831. Print. Available online: http://www.wfu.edu/~zulick/340/natturner.html.
Styron, William. The Confessions of Nat Turner. New York: Random House, 1967. Print.
“The Legacy of Nat Turner 1801-1831.” YouTube. YouTube. 21 Sep. 2013. Web. 17 Mar. 2014
Aptheker, Herbert. Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion. New York: Grove Press, 1968. Print.
The Fires of Jubilee, is a well written recollection of the slave insurrection led by Nathaniel Turner. It portrays the events leading towards the civil war and the shattered myth of contented slaves in the South. The book is divided into four parts: This Infernal Spirit of Slavery, Go Sound the Jubilee, Judgment Day, and Legacy.
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.
Nat Turner was a slave himself and every couple of months, he would get visions from the Spirit telling him things to do or look out for. Throughout his years, he was moved to different owners. In February 1831, there was an eclipse of the sun and Turner saw this as a sign that he needed to take action. Him and his four most trusted men got together and planned to hold the insurrection on July 4th. They were unable to do so on that day due to Turner’s illness. On August 13, there was another sign in which the sun appeared bluish-green. Turner set out to Joseph Travis, his owners house and killed the whole family. After that, they continued to kill all white people they came in contact with. As the rebellion continued, Turner’s men were being captured and killed. Turner escaped but was then captured and sentenced to execution. Nat Turner still remains a controversial black figure because of the rebellion, but his legacy of inspiring other slaves to find freedom by any means will still remain. Turner’s rebellion had a huge impact on the south because he was standing up for all of those who were in slavery.
The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates describes a sad and tragic story about a man named Nat Turner who was born into slavery and his fight to be free. Ironically, his willingness to do anything, even kill, to gain his freedom leads to his own demise. From the title of this book, 'The Fires of Jubilee,'; a reader can truly grasp the concept that there is trouble, chaos, and mayhem brewing in the month of August.
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...
William Styron wrote The Confessions of Nat Turner which was a historical fiction novel that was about the slave revolt that took place in Virginia. Styron was a white male that grew up in Virginia, and he spoke out about many injustices in the legal system many times throughout his career. Due to his background, Styron is proclaimed to be racist. Although the novel depicts the emotions a slave would feel like during that time in history. According to History, Politics and Literature: The Myth of Nat Turner, Styron has ‘distorted’, ‘manipulated’, ‘rejected’, ‘emasculated’ that of a ‘true story’ of an authentic militant hero and revolutionist. Although, it is understandable that critics would argue this, it also shows the hardships Nat dealt with while being enslaved. Critics also argue that Styron inaccurately portrayed the characters in The Confessions of Nat Turner. Styron portrays Brantley as an impoverished, physically repulsive, ignorant homosexual, whose pleading presence fills Turner with “pity and disgust” (Gross). This is not racist due to the fact that Brantley is a white
I’ve decided to review The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates for my book analysis. I was very hesitant on doing my analysis over this piece because I have so many opinions, and different viewpoints on this book. With so many opinions however, this was the best book for me to write 4 pages over. It was extremely easy for me to read Fires of Jubilee and really get into the text, because growing up my Mom would always tell stories about slaves and old slaves tales passed down from earlier generations of mine. Being of split-heritage I always get 2 different viewpoints and stories told to me and my brother by our great-grandparents, so reading this explained way more of the story of Nat Turner than I was previously told of when I was younger.
"A Rebellion to Remember: The Legacy of Nat Turner." A Rebellion to Remember: The Legacy of Nat Turner. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2014.
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
Nat Turner was an African-American slave who had lived his entire life in Southampton County, Virginia, an area with predominantly more blacks than whites. After the rebellion, a reward notice described Turner as:
Nat Turner was an African American slave who was born in Southampton County, Virginia on October 2, 1800. He started working on southern plantations 1831. When he was younger, everyone thought of him as being very smart. They saw that he was smart when he was about 3 or 4 years old. While young Nat Turner was playing with some of his friends, his mother heard him tell the children about something that had happened to him when he was born. She later had asked him about what he told the children. She asked him details about the incident, and it confirmed that he knew about this past event. From that time on, other slaves believed that in addition to his unique view, his physical markings were a sign that he would be a prophet. He was brought up knowing that slavery was wrong. He was taught how to read and write by his masters son.
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.
Nat Turner is a very independent strong person who fought for what he believed in to change the world for slaves and African Americans. According to (google source) Turner was born into slavery on October 2nd 1800, in Southampton Country, Virginia. Tuner wasn’t an ordinary slave he was able to learn