Nat Turner was very famous for his slave rebellion in the United States during 1831. Slavery was nowhere from being over and Turner felt that it was necessary for violence to happen, so slave owners can take the issue of banning slavery seriously. In Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, Master Epps “looked upon the black a man simply as an animal, differing in no respect from any other animals…” (261). Slaves were treated as property rather than human beings. It was not fair that white slave-owners were able to take advantage of black slaves by breaking up families. When you have too many dogs and cannot take care of all of them, you sell the ones you do not want in order to get economic profit and the process for slaves was the same.
This paper analyses the cause and the outcome of the Nat Turner’s rebellion. It also shows how violence was justified in the movement to abolish slavery because it proved that slave-owners should take the interest of slaves very seriously and treat them as a human, it also became a turning point where some slaves had the power to fight for a cause that they truly believed in and to a certain degree they were successful.
Nat Turner did not like the way his people were being treated. Mistreatments on the black slaves pushed Nat and his followers to start the rebellion. In the movie “Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property “directed by Charles Burnett, “slavery was an institution that degraded people”. Blacks had no power whatsoever and had to obey their masters. Master Epps was a cruel man “he ordered Patsey to be stripped of every article of dress…Ropes were then bought and the naked girl was laid upon her face” (255-256). No slave-owner in the world would want their women to be treated like how Master Epps treated Patsey, but because of her color, it made a big difference. If slaves refused to listen to their master they were punished. Punishment involved serving whipping, as well as the risk of being sold. Patsey punishment was being whipped. She had no clothes on to reduce the pain, but it did not matter to degrade black women, as long as they are your property you can do whatever you please.
Nat Turner was labeled by historians as a prophet, a slave, a preacher and a general in the rebellion war. The rebellion that was led by Nat Turner against the slaveholders resulted to the deaths of over sixty whites and over thirty black slaves were captured and sold to other slaveholders while the rest were hung (Breen, 103).Nat Turner hid from the authorities until he was found by a plantation dog on October 30th and was hung for the crimes he had committed. The rebellion was taken to be historic regardless of what happened during the rebellion and the black slaves now gained the ideology to rebel by having a role model like Nat Turner. The rebellion played a big role in fuelling civil wars and the civil rights movement that came afterward.
The real aim of Nat’s rebellion was to obtain freedom and liberty for the black slaves from the white masters. The knowledge about Nat Turner is obtained from “The Confessions of Nat Turner” by Thomas R. Gray. Nat Turner explains why many blacks considered him a prophet. He speaks of how he used to receive visions from God to all his followers and he states, “the serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had been borne for the sins of the men, and that I should take it on and fight against the serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be the last and the last should be the first” (Gray, 11).Regardless of the many lives that were lost in the rebellion, Turner was a hero as he played a major role in the African American history. Nat and his followers fought against major odds and they succeeded in some small ways. They managed to achieve more than most people in the United States at the time would have considered impossible given that they were slaves and were considered to be less valuable than the whites. Nat Turner did just as any other American in his position would do in situations when his community was mistreated.
This historic rebellion resulted in horrific and extreme consequences. Deaths of innocent individuals, strict slave codes and more harsh treatment of slaves in the southern parts occurred as a result of the rebellion. Some white militiamen, seeking for revenge, punished any black slaves they came across after the war was over. Innocent black slaves were being killed just because of their skin color. Some years after the rebellion the Fugitive Slave Act was effected. This idea would not have come up in the white man’s mind had the black slaves not rebelled. The rebellion led by Nut Turner created a belief in the blacks that liberty and freedom could be obtained. It also intensified the rift that existed between the South and North as the slave masters in the South accused the abolitionists from the North for inciting the slaves to rebel. Teaching slaves was banned and they were no longer allowed to be slaves.
Nat Turner's rebellion acted as a stepping stone for the blacks in the south in their day to day resistance. The slaves used to steal goods and crops from their masters. This resulted in the emergence of a black market where the slaves sold the goods they had stolen to the whites in the locality. The slaves would then use the money they obtained from the sale of the goods to buy freedom or in the purchase of the goods they needed. The rebellion also played a significant role in enlightening the slaves in that Nut Turner taught them how to read and write. Arguments arose from people that he was teaching the blacks so that they could sponsor his rebellion. They believed that his followers would be capable of writing secret notes and messages which would help them accomplish the goals of the rebellion. Most historians consider Nat’s rebellion very significant since he made his followers literate unlike other revolts, for instance, Gabriel’s revolt which failed because his followers were illiterate.
Most reasonable people and historians look at Nat’s rebellion in different perspectives. To some, especially the whites, Nat and his followers were viewed as pure villains who murdered innocent people while to the blacks they were viewed as pure heroes who were out to liberate their community. During his raid according to Nat Turner’s Rebellion by Nat Turner “The murder of this family, five in number, was the work of a moment, not one of them awoke; there was a little infant sleeping in a cradle, that was forgotten, until we had left the house and gone some distance, when Henry and Will returned and killed it”. He was trying to prove a point that what you do not like happening to your children, do not inflict the same pain on the colored children. Also, these young infants will turn out to be the same as their fathers and mothers torturing blacks. Young children were taught at a very young age that they were inferior to blacks and some would even beat slaves to show that they had control over them. If change does not happen now then slavery will be the same institution that causes damage on African Americans as well as their families
Not everyone has the courage and strength like Nat Turner to protest and fight against tyranny. He is viewed as a hero for many African Americans that helped shape the foundation of slaves being free. Although he did not successfully abolish slavery, he helped spread a message that you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it. He was one of the few out of fifty rebels to fight against white slave owners, he could of refuse to do the slave rebellion, but he chose not to. Turner was tired of the abuse white slaveholders were causing on African Americans and wanted to do something about it. The Nat Turner rebellion is one known to be the most famous slave uprisings in the history of America. He made the impossible, possible and gave hope to those who were enslaved.