The Long Walk to Freedom by Devon W. Carbado

Author:Devon W. Carbado
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Beacon Press

Originally published: London: Harvey and Darton, 1825.

EIGHT

From The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Va.

Nat Turner’s confession provides a chilling example of Christian inspiration that sets it apart from any slave narrative recorded. The leader of the largest and most significant slave revolt in American history, Turner was brought up by his mother, a slave who had been kidnapped from Africa, to believe that great things were expected from him. As a child he learned to read, and from the teachings of the Bible grew up associating religion with freedom. Turner grew up to become a charismatic preacher whose religious visions even led some blacks to consider him a prophet. In fact, one such vision—a solar eclipse that Turner took to be a sign from God—inspired his final and most historic act.

On the night of August 22, 1831, Turner, in an ill-fated attempt to free his people, led four accomplices on a three-day rampage through Southampton, Virginia. Going from house to house, the fugitives murdered every white person—regardless of sex or age—whom they encountered. Their destination was the arsenal in Jerusalem, Virginia, and along the way Turner’s army swelled to as many as seventy slave rebels. However, a militia intercepted the army and killed more than one hundred blacks. Turner escaped but was apprehended weeks later.

Turner’s narrative, dictated to his attorney as a confession made shortly before his execution in November 1831, demonstrates how his fanatical devotion to God led to a “divinely inspired” killing spree that left fifty-seven whites dead. But, just as significantly, Turner’s rebellion attests to the extreme lengths slaves were prepared to go to in order to achieve their freedom by any means necessary.

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