Nat Turner

Nat Turner was a person who believed deeply in his religion, and would do anything for it. What I mean is that Nat Turner got a "sign" from God that he was to kill all the white people, which began the Slave Rebellion. The Slave Rebellion was started when a solar eclipse happened, and Nat found it to be a sign. He killed around 60 white men, women, and children. I think that a whisper that Nat would say today if he was sitting right next to me would be participate in the things you believe in, even if they put you in bad situations.

Nat was born October 2, 1800. Later in his life, he began the rebellion in August 1831. He had lived in Southampton County his whole life, and had the whole rebellion participate there. The ones that participated in the rebellion were African Americans, some were freed slaves, yet still acted in it, and Nat felt that they were all being treated unfairly, and to top it off, Nat got the message from God to "slay[ing] my enemies with their own weapon." What he did was important because it showed the white people that if they weren't treated fairly, they were going to be violent. And that is exactly what they did.

Since Nat was the leader of the Slave Rebellion, he told people that it had been meant to scare the white people, not to have been a killing spree. Although, that is what it became, and Nat would soon find that out. This is a quote from a man saying "Turner declared that 'indiscriminate slaughter was not their intention after they attained a foothold, and was resorted to in the first instance to strike terror and alarm." So Nat made it clear that he never meant for any real harm to take place. All the white people were extremely scared and confused about why the African Americans were acting like this. None of them had ever gone this far, why now? The answer was simple; a threat made by them would make the white people a threat to themselves. So when they found out that they weren't going to come after them, they were afraid of them, they didn't mind doing the acts. This showed that the slaves were done being pushed around.

When Nat had gotten the message from God, he knew he would have to wait for a sign to tell him when to begin the rebellion. His sign did come, it being a solar eclipse, and he commenced in the actions about a week later. When the rebellion happened, the whites were quick to take action against them. When the two warships, the USS Natchez and the USS Warren came to put down the rebellion, Nat went into hiding to avoid being caught and killed. Even though they had killed about 60 whites, the warships killed around 100 African Americans. 100 African Americans didn't even participate in it, anyone who was black at that moment was killed, no matter if they had participated or not. It was a horrible thing that they had done, and they had no right to be killed while their leader himself was in hiding. The editor of the Richmond Whig wrote an article about this day. A part of it said, "The slaughter of many blacks without trial and under circumstances of great barbarity." So even someone who was white understood that this was wrong.

This whole ordeal affected many people, both black and white. Nat who had gone into hiding for many months was soon discovered in a hole on a farmers land. He was immediately turned in to the police. He was then sent to jail and was hung. Others were also treated in the same ways. Those who had participated in the rebellion were sent to jail and then execution, different forms, though, depending on their roles and acts of violence in the rebellion. Those who had not participated were beaten, tortured and then killed. Around 200 African Americans were killed, not just on the day that the warships surrounded Southampton. This had taught Nat that killing white people to help benefit the black people was not a good idea at all; because it ended up getting more black people killed than the whites. Other people learned that killing to scare people is not the answer at all, killing people in general isn't the answer. html tag

Nat Turner left behind with him that you should never think of someone as less than you. No one is less important than another. You may think so, but we are all just humans. Thinking that violence is a way to solve your problems isn't right, it isn't the way to be. Some people think that being tough is good, because no one wants to mess with you, but just because you are tough, it doesn't make you more important than anyone else. No one is over higher or lower importance, because everyone is equal. Also, two wrongs don't make a right. Murder isn't the answer to gain freedom, which ultimately caused more pain to the slaves.