Paper Topic 1
After reading Confessions of Nat Turner (1831) in the course packet, and watching the film Birth of a Nation (2016) I was able to notice some key takeaways and differences between the two.
The film Birth of a Nation was directed by Nate Parker, he also played the main role in the film acting as Nat Turner. After watching this movie I took a few minutes to reflect on the story and its main points. As Nate Parkers job as a filmmaker I believe that he wanted portray Nat Turner as a hero that acted with honor and dignity to serve what he believed to be the lord 's purpose. Throughout the whole movie Nat turner can be seen as a right and just slave. Whether it was going from plantation to plantation with his drunken master to preach or serving a group for dinner, he did what he was told no questions asked. The film leads up to the mass murder by showing what Nat Turner experienced and why he lead the revolt. Nate Parker includes terrible scenes to create pathos with the audience such as Nat being beaten for baptizing a man(1:08) and his wife being beaten and raped(55). He adds these scenes to provide justification for the acts of murder Nat commits. The movie also shows his visions from the spirits and lord to give depth and show how much Nat Turner believed in
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In the reading Nat Turner is not portrayed as a hero, but as a crazy slave. As Nat Turner describes the acts he committed he explains them very matter of factly with almost no emotion or remorse. He was an extremely religious man in both the reading and the movie, but in the reading he seems crazy talking about “visions” one included “I discovered drops of blood on the corn as though it were dew from heaven”(10) another being “I then found on the leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters”(10).Nat Turner believed those were signs that from God that his “purpose” would soon be
Nat Turners Rebellion became monumental for many people of color, he was idolized and respected for his courageous actions. The rebellion created fear that spread through the South, even those in favor for abolishment now wanted stricter laws for slaves. Turner was “recorded on the list of dishonor” for the organization he had lead (“An Address To The Slave Of The united Slaves”). There had been an interview by Thomas R. Gray, defending and slightly sympathizing with Turners actions, many rejected the validation of the interview and felt as if he just wanted “to trick, confuse, and overwhelm the slave’s minds.” (“The Southampton Tragedy”).
Jim Crow was not a person, it was a series of laws that imposed legal segregation between white Americans and African Americans in the American South. It promoting the status “Separate but Equal”, but for the African American community that was not the case. African Americans were continuously ridiculed, and were treated as inferiors. Although slavery was abolished in 1865, the legal segregation of white Americans and African Americans was still a continuing controversial subject and was extended for almost a hundred years (abolished in 1964). Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South is a series of primary accounts of real people who experienced this era first-hand and was edited by William H.Chafe, Raymond
To conclude, Nat Turner changed they slaves thought, he gave them hope, and vision, which is why he is so greatly
In 1831 a slave named Nat Turner led a rebellion in Southhampton County, Virginia. A religious leader and self-styled Baptist minister, Turner and a group of followers killed some sixty white men, women, and children on the night of August 21. Turner and 16 of his conspirators were captured and executed, but the incident continued to haunt Southern whites. Blacks were randomly killed all over Southhampton County; many were beheaded and their heads left along the roads to warn others. In the wake of the uprising planters tightened their grip on slaves and slavery.
Towards the beginning of this movie, many blacks were looking at the white men with hatred for raping and nearly killing a ten year old black girl. The men transformed the innocent little girl’s life forever. The men were instantly
Nat Turner and John Brown are both noted, as being symbols of American reform. Leaders of abolitionist groups, who went on a killing spree believing they were given “extraordinary powers from above” and were executed for their strong beliefs of anti-slavery. Their gruesome murders could easily attract followers and spark interest in others to write their biographies. John Brown and Nat turner both came from strong religious backgrounds.
Birth of A Nation (2016) tells the story of Nat Turner and the rebellion he led. Nat was born into slavery and was taught to read the Bible. As a result, Nat became well versed on the Bible and was used by his white owner as a preacher to calm slaves and to get rebellious slaves to submit to their owners. Nat preached obedience from plantation to plantation even if they were cruel masters. At the same time Nat saw the horrors of slavery from poor living conditions, being punished and put in chains and two children playing one in a leash because of the color of her skin.
’s word, his bond and what people thought of him, meant more than his individual freedom. “No greater Love than the act of one that sacrifice that another may endure” In August, 1831, Nat Turner led a group of enslaved and free black men in a rebellion that killed over fifty white men, women, and children (Locke & Wright, 1983). Nat Turner interpreted his rebellion as an act of God. While he awaited trial, Turner spoke with the white attorney, Thomas Ruffin Gray, who wrote their discussions and filed them.
As Smith uses his words to create a poetic trailer for this stereotype-free movie, he tells the story of a young African American boy. Rather than being focused on his color, he focuses on his
The book is about the life of Nat Turner, an African American slave, and the rebellion he led. The book begins in November, 1831. Nat Turner sits in a jail cell waiting for his sentencing for a rebellion he led which resulted in the death of around 60 white women, children, and men. Nat's attorney, Thomas Gray, pressures Turner to confess to the crimes he had committed hopefully to make peace with God. At this point, Nat beings on talking about his childhood where the root of his hatred for the white race.
The Fires of Jubilee written by Stephen B. Oates is a book written about a young slave life from prepubescents to adulthood, or better yet a young smart boy to an older anarchy inducing man. The setting of the book takes place in Southampton County Virginia around the 1800’s. The main protagonist being a young slave called Nat Turner. The author very briefly gives details about Nat’s life as a newborn, mainly giving a brief summary of who his mother is. His mother was purchased to be a slave by a man named Benjamin Turner, a wealthy tide water planter.
The banned book that I chose to read for this quarter was “The Confessions of Nat Turner” by William Styron. The book is loosely based upon the slave rebellion that Nat Turner led in Southampton County, Virginia from August 21-23, 1831. The book starts with Nat Turner waiting for his trial for the rebellion, and then proceeds to look back on his life and then tell the novels through a series of flashbacks. The flashbacks start with his first slave master, Samuel Turner, and end with him leading the slave rebellion. The book has also come under quite a bit of criticism however.
This film brutally and unapologetically depicts the harsh and cruel aversions our protagonist, Solomon Northrup, must endure as a slave in 1900’s America.
The Birth of a Nation was a silent film written by D.W. Griffith that was produced in 1915. Most films in this time frame lasted about ten to twenty minutes. This film was over two hours long and was one of the first movies of its kind at the time. The film itself took much more time to produce than what was predicted. The production of this film was said to have influenced the “second era” or the changes of the Klu Klux Klan.
Movie Analysis: “Birth of a Nation” The silent film, “Birth of A Nation”, was directed by D.W. Griffith and was originally a novel and a play, entitled “The Clansman” written by Thomas Dixon, who was a good friend of D.W. Griffith. The film was released on February 8, 1915 and was originally presented in two parts, namely the Civil War and the Reconstruction separated by an intermission and was the first 12-reel film in America. The film focuses on two families, the Stoneman’s who are pro-Union and are from the North and the Cameron’s who are pro-Confederacy from the South. The Stoneman household has two sons and a daughter named Elsie, while the Cameron household has two daughters named Margaret and Flora and three sons, one of which is the