Nat Turner Confessions Analysis

Essay 4
The confessions of Nat Turner, the leader of the late insurrection in Southampton Virginia, as fully and voluntarily made to Thomas R. Gray, in the prison where he was continued, and acknowledged by him to be such when read before the Court of Southampton; with the certificate, under seal, of the Court convened at Jerusalem, November 5, 1831 for this trial. Also, an authentic account of the whole insurrection, with lists of the writes who were murdered, and of the Negroes bought before the Court of Southampton.
The Confessions of Nat Turner is far more than the work of Thomas R. Gray. It also includes the voice of Nat Turner. We can hear that voice whenever the Confessions contains information which Gray would have had no reason to create or distort. When Nat Turner describes early childhood events, when he gives the details of his religious visions, or when he portrays the planning meeting at Cabin Pond, then we hear Nat Turner
Nat Turner (1800-1831) was known to his local “felo servants” in Southampton County as “The Prophet” On the evening of Sunday, August 21, 1831, he met six associates in the woods at Cabin Pond, and about 2:00 am they began to enter local houses and kill the white inhabitants. Over the next 36 hours, they were joined by as many as 60 other slaves and free blacks, and the killed at least 10 men, 14 women, and 31 infants and children. By noon of Tuesday, August 23, the insurgents had been killed, captured, or dispersed by local militia. Nat Turner alone escaped-until October 30, when he was caught in the immediate vicinity, having used several hiding places over the previous 9 weeks. The next day he was delivered to the County sheriff and lodged in the county jail in Jerusalem, (now Courtland), Virginia. There, from November 1 through November 3, he was interviewed by Thomas Ruffin Gray, a 31 years old lawyer who had previously represented several other defendants’ charger in the uprising. Gray had witnessed the aftermath of the killings, interviewed other participants, and survivors, and had supplied lifer and the plot, and he was aware of the intense interest and the commercial possibilities of its originator’s narrative. In the confessions Nat Turner appears more a fanatic than a practical liberator, He tells of being spoken to by the holy Spirits, of seeing visions and signs in the heavens that I was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty. After one week, on August 21, the rebellion emitted.
Turner and seven different slaves on the ranch slaughtered Joseph Travis and his family while they dozed. They set off an a crusade of fierce homicides along the wide open getting slave initiates as they advance from ranch to estate. Turner and his Kindred escapes traveled through Southampton County toward Jerusalem the district seat, where they were determined to grabbing the ordnance. Virginians discusses over nullifying servitude after the uprising, including strict control of slaves developments. Likewise teaching slaves was prohibited the long haul away in the south of Nat Turner disobedience was unfavorable to social liberties before the Civil War.
Historians have noted that Nat Turner did not attack the Giles Reese house during the insurrection. He bypassed it in order to begin the rebellion at his home farm, the Travis place, and he never attempted to return. Some have suggested that Turner avoided the Reese house to his own wife and children the misery of the
rebellion.
As I would like to think Nat Turner was a Prophet Turner was profoundly dedicated to his Christian confidence and trusted he got messages from God through dreams and signs in nature. When he was in his mid-20s, these signs drove him to come back to his expert after a break endeavor. Also, a sun powered obscuration and an unordinary environmental occasion are accepted to have propelled his insurgence, which started on August 21, 1831.