Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion Leader - Essay Sample

Introduction

Nat Turner's rebellion was a slave rebellion that occurred in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831 (Drexler-Dreis, 5). The uprising was led by Nathaniel ''Nat'' Turner, an enslaved African-American preacher who vehemently opposed the act of slavery. Born on Benjamin Turner's Virginia plantation, Nat got a rare opportunity of learning how to read, write, and study the Bible (Aptheker, 11). He developed a strong relationship with God and believed that God had sent him to free the slaves. Turner was later convinced by the solar eclipse that the time had come to free others from slavery, which made him plan an insurrection together with his supporters.

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On August 21, 1831, Turner and his supporters began a revolt against white oppressors with the killing of the Travis family, the slave owners to secure arms and horses (French, 41). He mobilized more enslaved African-Americans in the insurrection that led to the murder of more than 51 white people (French, 42. Afterward, Turner and most of his co-conspirators hid but were caught and sentenced to death by hanging. While Turner was in hiding, the White mob took their revenge of African-Americans of Southampton Country. At least 100 black people were slaughtered after the rebellion (Drexler-Dreis, 121). Although the slaves were defeated in the war, they succeeded in passing their message of freedom.

The reasons for selecting Turner's rebellion include the following: it was one of the bloodiest revolts in American history; it imparted fear on the white slaves. It led to the begging of the Civil War. The rebellion mainly began because the slaves had the feeling of exploitation brought to them by the white people. As such, they collaborated to fight for their freedom. Interestingly, the event instilled a culture of fear not only in Virginia but also in other parts of Southern America.

According to French (51), this rebellion was at the forefront of starting the civil war. The anger the black people had eventually influenced the civil war. This war occurred due to political instability caused by the attempt of African-Americans to free themselves from slavery. The white people also saw the black people as inferior, discriminated against them, and denied them the right to education, assembly, speech, and movement.

Most of the states in Southern America stiffened their restrictions on black people. Spreading terror throughout the white South, Turner's rebellion influenced new legislation that prohibited the education, assembly, and movement of enslaved people (Drexler-Dreis, 135). Although Turner and his followers who participated in the revolt were executed, their actions enabled the whites to see the effect of slavery and the impact it may have if the enslaved decide to oppose their actions. The slave owners also realized that the slaves could instill fear in the region. They could see the extent to which the enslaved were determined to fight for their freedom and liberty.

This movement is essential to scholarship because it enlightens about the beginning of the end slavery in American history and the start of the civil war caused by political instability that arose when the White oppressors discriminated against the black people and denied them the freedom of movement, assembly, education, and speech. This analysis provided an awareness of the emancipation proclamation, a declaration aimed to free slaves within the rebellious states. Nat Turner's indeed helped bring an end to the cruel and unjust reality of slavery. Most scholars believe that the abolitionist movement could have never occurred without the slave revolt of Nat Turner (Aptheker, 306). Besides, the rebellion opened the eyes of the Americans to slavery ills. It paved the way for less violent revolutions like Civil Rights non-violent movement and the Black Muslim uprising.

Scholarly work on Nat Turner's rebellion depicts Africans as people who stand for their rights and freedoms. As noted, slavery was the leading cause of this rebellion. African-Americans, who were serving as slaves in Southampton, were not pleased with how they were treated in the region. As slaves, they were forced to work on plantations, raped, discriminated, and denied fundamental rights and freedoms (Drexler-Dreis, 88). The slaves were disallowed from gathering as it could make them plan for resistance. They were also restricted from movement. Besides, African Americans ware denied freedom of speech and education. The whites wanted the black people to worship them and did not want the slaves to gain knowledge because it would pose a threat to them.

The slaves were forced to obey their masters, and those who showed any sign of disobedience were subjected to harsher treatments. Black people were never pleased with how thee white oppressors treated them. For that reason, they planned to collaborate and fight for their freedom regardless of the consequences. The only option of showing their displeasure was through force and killing of masters, and any person of White origin. Turner's rebellion, therefore, indicated that the African-Americans are willing to fight for their rights by all means. Their rights and freedoms cannot be infringed.

This report contradicts the commonly portrayed, Eurocentric based, distorted image of the black persona, which consequently created a grossly inaccurate image of blacks by portraying African-Americans as freedom fighters. Some scholarly works portray black people as criminals who indulge in violent behaviors to obtain their wants. However, this report reminds that Nat Turner's rebellion was not a war for robbery but a struggle for freedom through action. Slavery is an act that shows inhumane behavior and a lack of sympathy for other people. Those who practice it do not value humanity.

Often, slaves do not enjoy human rights, such as movements. They are confined in one place and are required to follow and obey the demands of their masters. Although some reports argue that black people are violent because they forcefully demanded to be free, this report explains that the use of force was the only option black people could take to air their grievances and stop slavery. It is because they lacked the freedom of speech, and anyone who opposed the actions of the whites was either subjected to brutal treatment or executed. In this perspective, the report argues that black people are not violent, but they are forced to seek violent means if that is the only option to be heard by the authorities.

In terms of Legacy, Nat Turner's Revolt became a significant part of the cultural landscape in the US as it gave slaves the ways of ending slavery. Nat Turner emerged as a hero, a religious fanatic, and a villain. He became a substantial icon to the black power movement of 1960 as ab example of black people rising against white oppression (French, 206). Other people have objected to indiscriminate shedding of blood to achieve freedom. The revolution also led to the formation of movements and policies aimed to end slavery in the United States. For instance, it led to the declaration of the emancipation proclamation that freed all slaves within the rebellious states. Many literary works about the revolt also followed. After the rebellion, Abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson penned down a history of the Nat Turner's revolt that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (French, 218).

In the 20th century, Historian Herbert Aptheker wrote about the rebellion and many other episodes of slave resistance as a way to combat slavery (Aptheker, 315. His notable work, American Negro Slave Revolt (1943), prepared the ground for a revolutionist understanding of slavery as a system of oppression (Aptheker, 318). In 1967, William Styron, a novelist, gave Nat Turner's rebellion a broader audience when he wrote a best-selling novel, The Confessions of Nat Turner (French, 266). In 2016, Nate Parker, a Virginia native, released the movie Birth of a Nation, which tells the story of Nat Turner's rebellion (Drexler-Dreis, 512). Therefore, this revolt is one of the movements in American history that will never be forgotten. It paved the way for ending slavery in the United States. The story about the revolt lives because it is relevant today to subjects about organizing for change.

Overall, Nat Turner's revolt marks one of the most critical slave operations in the history of America. The cause of the rebellion was slavery. The black people saw that they were inferior to the whites, who were oppressing and exploiting them. White people lost their lives due to slavery. The whites also killed many black people as revenge. The significant results of massive deaths and loss of property for the white people influenced the slave industry. Nonetheless, the innocent massacre of the African Americans in the South by white militia attracted government intervention, and with time, slavery took a different direction.

Most importantly, the revolt created fear among the white people who realized that African-Americans had the courage to fight back and claim freedom. To reduce the threats, the whites made restrictions to discourage the slaves from moving and assembling. These restrictions were made to minimize the contact between the black people so that they do not have time to organize for rebellion. They also outlawed the education of the slaves. Primarily, Turner's rebellion served as a trigger that eventually led to civil war. Without Turner's revolt, the Civil war may not have occurred as quickly as it did. Although the black people were defeated during the rebellion, they succeeded in passing their message to the white oppressors: - The need for freedom. Today, many people across the world regard Turner as a hero.

Work Cited

Aptheker, Herbert. Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion: Including the 1831" Confessions." North Chelmsford: Courier Corporation, 2012.

Drexler-Dreis, Joseph. "Nat Turner's Rebellion as a Process of Conversion." Black Theology." An International Journal 12.3 (2014).

French, Scot. The Rebellious Slave: Nat Turner in American Memory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004.