Nat Turner Rebellion Research Paper

Nat Turner Rebellion

Stacey Cofield

Florida State College at Jacksonville Nat Turner Rebellion

The primary source that I have chosen is Nat Turner Explains His Rebellion, 1831. More than fifty white men, women and children were led to their untimely demised at the hands of Nat Turner. Leading a revolt that was comprised of Black men, some freed and others enslaved, Turner felt his actions were an act of God. The American Yawp is the main source of information that pertains to the events and action of Nat Turner’s revolt. The accounts of Turner’s actions were recorder by Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Locke & Wright, 1983).

This primary source reporting of Nat turners Rebellion was presented by way of the American Yawp, written in 1983,

Cotton fashioned the Federalist South. This new found goods was so extremely lucrative that its splendor exposed to a formerly shut culture to the magnificence, the revenue, the manipulation, and the social magnitudes of a greater, more attached, global community (Locke & Wright, 1983). Inhabitants who were less diverse became more multicultural, more educated, and better-off. As the people fortunate to have found themselves better-off systems of class was established. Previous all were considered a group, but with the new found class system, people were divided into upper, lower and middle class. Ports that had previously catered to importation of slaves, and distributed locally, converted to daily and weekly shipping lines to New York City, Liverpool, Manchester, Le Havre, and Lisbon (Locke & Wright, 1983). The vast nation changing to a closer audience was, gradually but surely, coming closer together; and the South was right in the middle. But slavery remained, and the internal slave trade rose as the 1860s approached. During all this progress the deliberation of race issues continue to heighten and questions of slavery, the threat of it being challenged (Locke & Wright,

Turner felt compelled to do this on his own free will. Not many slaves that have a chance of freedom would voluntarily return. When you carefully examine the magnitude of his actions, you understand his ability to command a crowd. How many prisoners do you think might escape, enjoy the taste of freedom, and voluntarily return to captivity, zero. Nat returned because he felt he had deserted those who believed in him and depended on his leadership .Nat’s word, his bond and what people thought of him, meant more than his individual freedom. “No greater Love than the act of one that sacrifice that another may endure” In August, 1831, Nat Turner led a group of enslaved and free black men in a rebellion that killed over fifty white men, women, and children (Locke & Wright, 1983). Nat Turner interpreted his rebellion as an act of God. While he awaited trial, Turner spoke with the white attorney, Thomas Ruffin Gray, who wrote their discussions and filed them. Nat explained that it was as an act of God. He stated the spirit which had spoken to his ancestors as well, proclaimed that it is time for the last to be first and the first to be last (Locke & Wright, 1983). Nat received this as a revelation, instruction to move forward and to strike. He committed the act of killing as many as well over fifty white men, women, and children. You know, who knows what men hear, see or think,