Nat Turner's Rebellion - Uncle Tom's Cabin
To the white residents of Southampton County, it came as a surprise
that a slave named Nat Turner was the leader of a slave rebellion that
resulted in the deaths of 55 white people. This rebellion, which
Turner believed was directed by God, became one of the most famous
slave insurrections in U.S. history.
Nat Turner was born in Southampton County, Virginia on October 2,
1800. As a young boy, Turner was recognized as being highly
intelligent. His keen sense was noticed when he was about three or
four years old. While he was playing with other children, his mother
overheard him telling them about something that had happened before he
was born. She asked him details about the incident, and it confirmed
that he knew about this past event. Thereafter, other slaves believed
that in addition to his unique perception, his physical markings were
a sign that he would be a prophet.
In adulthood, he became a preacher. As a young man, he began having
visions that he believed were from God. Turner had three visions prior
to the rebellion in 1831. His first vision occurred in 1821, after he
had run away. While hiding out in the woods, he was prompted to return
after a vision from the Spirit who directed him to "return to the
service of my earthly master." After thirty days in the woods, he
returned to his master.
His second vision came in 1825 after he had seen "lights in the sky."
He prayed to find out what it meant. His prayers were answered when ".
. . while labouring in the field, I discovered drops of blood on the
corn, as though it were dew from heaven . . . I then found on the
leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters and numbers, with the
forces of men in different attitudes, portrayed in blood, and
representing the figures I had seen before in the heavens."
On May 12, 1828 he had his third vision. He ".
This is a report on the book Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion, written by Stephen B. Oates. The story is about a slave revolt that happened in 1831 and the person who led it, Nat Turner. It tells of his life, the area and time in which he lived, and of the bloody revolt as well as the bloodier repercussions after it was suppressed.
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.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was born on June 14, 1811. Her father was Lyman Beecher, pastor of the Congregational Church in Harriet’s hometown of Litchfield, Connecticut. Harriet’s brother was Henry Ward Beecher who became pastor of Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church. The religious background of Harriet’s family and of New England taught Harriet several traits typical of a New Englander: theological insight, piety, and a desire to improve humanity (Columbia Electronic Library; “Biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe”).
Nat Turner is the most famous and most controversial slave rebel on American history. He was living in the innocent season of his life, in those carefree years before the working age of twelve when a slave boy could romp and run about the plantation with uninhibited glee. Nat in his young years cavorted about the home place as slave children did generally in Virginia. He was first lived in Turner's house, who owned a modest plantationin a remote neighborhood "down county" from Jerusalem. His daytime supervisor was his grandmother, Old Bridget- who regaled the boy with slave tales and stories from the Bible. Nat had become very attached to his grandmother. The Turners had become Methodists, who held prayer services on their farm and took the blacks to Sunday chapel. Among such slaves were Nat's grandmother and his mother, Nancy, a large, spirited, olive-skinned young American, imported to North America before 1808, to toil as bondsman on farms and plantations there. By the time Nat was four or five years old, Nancy was extremely proud of him. Bright-eyed and quick to learn, he stood out among the other children. He never touched liquor, never swore, never played practical jokes and never cared a thing for white people's money. Being a Methodist, the old Master not only approved of Nat's literacy but encouraged him to study the Bible. The preachers and everybody else in the boy's world all remarked that he had too much sense to be raised in bondage, that he " would never be of any service to anyone as a slave.
The names of Nat Turner and Frederick Douglass are remembered because of the fame that they earned as black Americans during pre-Civil War slave period. However, their names color the pages of history books for widely different reasons: Nat Turner led one of the greatest slave revolts in almost 150 years of slavery, while Frederick Douglass obtained his freedom and education, going on to become a renowned speaker, author, and public leader.
Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of the most famous and popular pieces of Civil War literature. It was drawn from selected pieces of a real life memoir done by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a book that drew many people into the fight over the institution of slavery. Northerners hailed the book saying it exposed the truth, while southern slaveholders and plantation owners claimed that it had many falsehoods in it. President Lincoln, when he met Stowe called her, "the little lady who started this big war."
“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'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 an enslaved African American who led what was called the “Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion” where slaves and free blacks who were located in Southampton County, Virginia. This rebellion took place on August 21, 1831, and as a result at least fifty-five whites were murdered. All of those who took part in this rebellion were to be executed, including Nat Turner. While Nat Turner was awaiting execution he was interviewed for two months by a man named Thomas Ruffin Gray, a wealthy lawyer and slave owner himself. Thomas Gray’s purpose for writing “The Confessions of Nat Turner” was to put what Nat Turner said into writing and for it to be published.
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.
“My father and mother strengthen me, and this was my first impression of life saying in my presence, I was intended for some great purpose (Nat turner, Brainyqoute.com)”. From the very beginning Nat Turner knew that he was meant to do something great. On the day of October 2, 1800 the famous Nat turner was born to Nancy Turner his father an unknown slave. Turner grew up with the thought that his father was an escaped slave and was coming back when he got the money to retrieve him and his mother. Nat turner grew up and lived his life in Southampton County, Virginia. The place was predominantly African- American but it didn’t stop the use of slavery in the county.
With movements such as Nat Turner’s rebellion in Virginia in 1831, Southern whites felt strongly pressured to defend slavery. Many attempted to justify their actions and state that slavery was good for society; “a positive good rather than a necessary evil”. Southern whites had the idea of Paternalism meaning it was their duty to protect and take care of their slaves and they were considered family. However, slaves such as Harriet Jacobs and Solomon Northup thought differently. Harriet Jacobs was treated more as property than a family member and thousands of slaves such as Northup were punished harshly for miniscule reasons.
Nat Turner was an African American slave who influenced the slave culture to believe in the positives in order to improve their lifestyle. He influenced his fellow slaves by rebelling and fighting against slavery. The results for Nat Turner did not turn out how he wanted, until after his life was gone. His influences changed the future of the United States and the future of African Americans.
In the year 1826 Fredrick Douglass realized that he would eventually escape slavery. He would recount this thought four times in his life when he has to become most rebellious in order to survive slaveholders attempting to establish control and dominance in different ways. Each time one comes along Douglass responds using a different form of retaliation or rebellion to show his masters that they don’t own as much control over him as they think they do. All of these attempts to resist his masters control, slavery, and what slavery stood for were detrimental to Fredrick’s escape but the most influential one, the resistive act that started, and kept, the ball rolling was Fredrick’s determination to become literate. Knowledge is power and without his ability to read and write Douglass would have never escaped slavery or written a Narrative of his life.
Even today, with literature constantly crossing more lines and becoming more shocking, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin remains one of the most scandalous, controversial, and powerful literary works ever spilled onto a set of blank pages. Not only does this novel examine the attitudes of white nineteenth-century society toward slavery, but it introduces us to the hearts, minds and souls of several remarkable and unprecedented characters.