Nat Turner & His Rebellion Against Slavery

Before the Civil War began, many slaves organized rebellions against the cruelty that they endured. The arguably most famous of them all was Nat Turner’s Rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. Nat turner endured extreme pain from his Masters, in response, he led a two day rebellion against the white people in his community. He instantly became an icon to the anti-slavery community after his execution, despite the fact half of the people killed were women and children. Many rebellions sprouted up following Turner’s death, but did nothing but put more violence into the world. Did this violent rebellion actually have an impact on the movement for equality compared to the civil rights movement in the early 1900’s?

From an early age, Nat Turner’s owner allowed him to be instructed in reading, writing and religion. Intelligence gave him a large sense of moral understanding into white supremacy. Turner’s extensive religious training led him to believe himself called upon God to lead his people out of bondage. He immediately became a powerful influence to all of the slaves in his community. Turner turned to the bible to preach to the slaves on his plantation, giving them hope and guidance. When Nat Turner’s owner, Samuel Turner, died, Nat was sold to a few different white plantation owners. This just expanded Turner’s audience and his leadership role in the black community. Exceling religious education slowly began to turn into a feeling of anointment by God for Turner.

Nat viewed an eclipse on August 13, 1831 as a sign that it was time for the holy war to begin. On August 14, he preached a sermon at church provoking his fellow slaves to join him. Between August 22nd and 23rd, the rebellion surged through the plantations. The slaves killed as many as 60 white men, women, and children. Non african americans quickly began placing a barbaric statue behind the rebellion. On August 29, 1831, a letter from the senior editor of the Richmond Constitutional Whig was published in the newspaper saying, “Nat, a preacher and a prophet among them; that even he had no ulterior purpose, but was stimulated exclusively by fanatical revenge, and perhaps misled by some hallucination of his imagined spirit of prophecy”(Richmond Constitutional Whig).

Following the rebellion, Turner ran for 70 days before he eventually allowed himself to be caught and tried for his crimes. During his time in prison, Turner and his attorney wrote The Confessions of Nat Turner. The confessions included Turner’s outlook on the rebellion stating, “To a mind like mine, restless, inquisitive, and observant of everything that was passing, it is easy to suppose that religion was the subject to which it would be directed; and, although this subject principally occupied my thoughts, there was nothing that I saw or heard of to which my attention was not directed”(Turner). Nat Turner was executed by hanging on November 11, 1831.

Following Turner’s death, many other violent slave rebellions sprouted up across the country. Distinguished professor of history, Kenneth Greenberg describes Turner’s impact noting, “Nat Turner's name rings through American history with a force all its own. Leader of the most important slave rebellion on these shores, variously viewed as a murderer of unarmed women and children, an inspired religious leader, a fanatic—this puzzling figure represents all the terrible complexities of American slavery”(Greenberg). Despite all the good that Nat Turner accomplished in his life, much of his ideology was completely destroyed once he took up arms against women and children.

Violent rebellions will never proclaim a long term effect. Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist, conducted research for a presentation at Arizona State University. Chenoweth collected data on 323 violent and nonviolent social revolutions since 1900. She reports her findings stating, “Nonviolent campaigns have a 53% success rate and only about a 20% rate of complete failure. Things are reversed for violent campaigns, which were only successful 23% of the time, and complete failures about 60% of the time”(Chenoweth). An individual with opposing views will never come to an understanding directly after the killing of innocent people. Turner left behind a legacy of bravery and rebellion, but had the opportunity to make a greater impact than he did.. With his ability to read and write, Turner could have made a tremendous long lasting impact to slavery as a whole. Instead, whites looked to the brutality of the rebellion and despised the slaves even more. A passive approach to conflicts always gives a greater contribution to society as a whole.

Eventually, a civil war broke out and the 13th amendment was passed, granting African Americans freedom from bondage. The fight against discrimination as a whole began during the civil rights movement in the 1950s. African americans peacefully organized mass protests against the discrimination they were continuing to endure. Massive marches, such as the March on Washington, were used to show the United States the pain that blacks were enduring. Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of the civil rights movement. The legacy that King left behind will be instilled in history books and monuments as an icon of peace and equality. The enemy looks to extort flaws to provide a claim against the opposition. Failure to provide a just claim is what diminished the hateful laws that occupied the South, not violence.

Theories by Martin Luther King Jr. such as,”Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”(King), are what brought people together in times of darkness. Comparing King to Turner is a perfect example of the different results between peaceful and violent protests. If Martin Luther King Jr. took the same approach as Nat Turner, we may not see the evolution of equality that we have today. True equality is never accepted if respect and understanding is not involved. Successful pacifist, Mahatma Gandhi said, "We should meet abuse by forbearance… Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop”(Ghandi).