ipl-logo

Confessions Of Nat Turner's Birth Of A Nation

707 Words3 Pages

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 …show more content…

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

Show More
Related
729 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
373 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
274 Words | 2 Pages

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”).

Read More
742 Words | 3 Pages

To conclude, Nat Turner changed they slaves thought, he gave them hope, and vision, which is why he is so greatly

Read More
699 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More
906 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1180 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More
166 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More
1750 Words | 7 Pages

On the other hand due to the fact that the movie had such a "whites come together feel" in it, it became the first movie to be played in the White House. What is meant by having an "whites come together feel" is that whites had so much hatred and fear towards African-Americans that they were able to put aside their own standing feud to band together and defeat African- Americans. This is unbelievable and not at the same time for the reason that yes the north and south had different views and values at the time but if African-Americans are trying to endanger any whites, the whites would always band together to protect their own. This is what made it easy for Griffith to make the Ku Klux Klan the heroes in the movie due to the fact they had a common enemy. It displayed the Klan and whites in an uplifting light.

Read More
1475 Words | 6 Pages

The strongest point of the film is of course the protagonist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well the actor, who plays the principal role David Oyelowo. During the fight for voter rights, King has several meetings with President Johnson (performed by the effective Tom Wilkinson ), who not only gives all his support to the King, but is also is willing to listen to his crucial and compelling advises for the legislation application . Nonetheless, there is not only one principal idea of the law application resistence in oposition by the white population, author gives us an other exemple. This is the conflict of the political interests between the President Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover (Dylan Baker), where the last one stays undefeated ( unconquerable) racist.

Read More
355 Words | 2 Pages

This film brutally and unapologetically depicts the harsh and cruel aversions our protagonist, Solomon Northrup, must endure as a slave in 1900’s America.

Read More
857 Words | 4 Pages

This film was not just praised for its cinematic brilliance but was critiqued for its extreme racist theme and for the portrayal of black stereotypical characteristics. Griffith refused that his intent was to be racist and declared it as art. Griffith’s film was promoting pure propaganda and hate, it was written to play on every fear that the ignorant Whites could have about blacks in the US. Unfortunately, the effect of the film was so profound that it served to reinforce negative stereotypes that persist to this day. Griffith depicted slaves as immoral, lazy, unintelligent and overly sexualized.

Read More
205 Words | 1 Pages

The release of The Birth of a Nation was a great help in the Growth of the KKK. The production of this film was used as a great help by the Klu Klux Klan in adding on to their memberships. The film the Birth of a Nation actually portrayed Lynching’s in a positive light. Basically, saying so many African Americans actually

Read More
978 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
1302 Words | 6 Pages

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

Read More

More about Confessions Of Nat Turner's Birth Of A Nation

Related Topics

Open Document