A slave and his one dangerous wish:

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Period 2 US History

• A slave and his one dangerous wish
• FREEDOM

Bryan Samuel Daniel Casale Collin Browse
Per. 2 US History
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Childhood

• Nat Turner was born in Southampton County,
  Virginia on October 2, 1800.
• He was brought up in a deeply religious family
• This caused to him to have frequent visions from
  God. These visions greatly influenced his life.
• At 21 he ran away from his master and returned a
  month later due to guidance from a vision. From
  then on he was called The Prophet among his
  fellow slaves.
• One vision was the last shall be first meaning
  the slaves were meant to rule.

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Adult Life

• On the 12 of February, 1831, a solar eclipse took
  place. Nat Turner felt this was a sign from God,
  that a black mans hand was reaching across the
  sun.
• A second solar eclipse appeared in August of the
  same year. The Prophet took this as a symbol
  and began his rebellion a week later.

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The Southampton Insurrection1 (1831)

• On the night of August 21 at Southampton County,
  Nat Turner finally commenced his battle against
  all the white people
• His makeshift militia was composed of over 70
  free and enslaved blacks.
• Using only knives, axes and other such stealthy
  weapons, the army killed 55 whites, men, women,
  and children alike.

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The Southampton Insurrection2

• They only spared those of impoverished
  disposition, in the justification that they
  thought no better of themselves than of negroes
• Nat Turner himself confessed to killing only one
  person
• It was the bloodiest slave revolt in
• the history of the south

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Capture

• The rebellion was finally ended when a militia of
  whites of almost double the number, supplemented
  by artillery, defeated the insurgents.
• He evaded capture for over two months. He hid in
  the Dismal Swamp area and was unintentionally
  found by a hunter on October 30. He surrendered
  calmly.
• He was sentenced to death following a trial. On
  November 1st, 1831, Nat Turner was hanged.

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Consequences1

• Directly after the rebellion, the punishment was
  clearly not on only Nat Turner and his fellow
  rebels, but on all blacks in the south
• 200 blacks who were completely unrelated to the
  rebellion were killed by white supremacists
• The Virginia General Assembly forbade teaching
  blacks the ability to read, write.
• After the civil war, almost all blacks were
  illiterate.
• Also, public gatherings of blacks was prohibited
  without a white priest present.

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Consequences2

• His lawyer during the trial, Thomas Ruffin Gray,
  wrote the Confessions of Nat Turner.
• This book was composed of tales of Turner, which
  his lawyer heard from his client during
  conversations and interviews.
• A modern adaptation was written in 1967 by
  William Styron. This first person historical
  narrative was criticized as being to empathetic
  with Turner and not being realistic.

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Consequences3

• The most important result was that it opened the
  eyes of all African Americans that liberty,
  freedom, and the pursuit of happiness were God
  given rights that all men were entitled to.
• his uprising was as much black against white in
  a slaveholding society as it was slave versus
  owner.

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Fun Facts

• In 2002, Nat Turner was named in the 100
  Greatest African Americans list by Molefi Kete
  Asante.
• William Styron's 1967 Confessions of Nat Turner
  won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968
• Several Comic Books, Films and Songs been based
  on Nat Turner. Immortal Techniques 2003 song,
  "Point of No Return, references Turner

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Bibliography

• http//www.spiritus-temporis.com/nat-turner/ 
• http//www.bookrags.com/
• Nat_Turner www.dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/page1
  .cfm?ItemIB14427 
• http//blackrevolution.net/BLACKREV/CFBR/PAGES/NTB
  IO.html
• http//historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6811
• http//docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/turner.html

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