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How Did Nat Turner Impact Slavery

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Nat Turner’s Impact on Slavery The History of slavery in Virginia can be traced to 1619, soon after the founding of Virginia as an English colony by the London Virginia Company. The company established a headright system to encourage the colonists to transport indentured servants to the colony for labor. The indentured servants would sign a contract committing to work a set number of years in return for passage to the country and their freedom. Once the contract was fulfilled the servants would be released from the contract and allowed the same opportunities as whites to live on the land. However, in years to come the way of life would soon change for African Americans. Slave laws were passed denying their freedom. Although, this would eventually …show more content…

Turner’s father escaped slavery by retreating North when he was a young child, while Turner and his mother remained on the plantation as slaves. Turner was very known throughout the local slave community and his relatives as being a unique and remarkable child. Turner’s slave owner saw his intelligence and encouraged him to learn how to read and write. Gaining these skills allowed Turner to seek and educate himself even further about information being withheld from slaves. Turner began to read the Bible regularly and he soon became a very religious man. He realized that slavery was a sin against God and his teachings. He began to see signs from God, and over time the signs became unavoidable. Turner saw the signs as a request from God to put an end to slavery. He constructed a plan with the other slaves to rebel against the white …show more content…

A white farmer named Benjamin Phipps discovered Turner hiding in a hole on October 30, 1831. Turner was captured and turned in to the authorities. Following a five-day trial, Turner was convicted and sentenced to death. He was hanged on November 11, 1831 in Jerusalem, Virginia. Turner's corpse was flayed, beheaded, and quartered. Fifty-three people, including Turner were arrested. Twenty-one were acquitted, twelve were transported out of state and nineteen were hanged. Following the rebellion, close to two hundred black people were killed by white militias and

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When Nat got to the age of 4, others began to notice his intelligence level was above most. This attribute about himself immediately earned respect from the other slaves. Nat could even read, which was extremely rare at the time among slaves. Benjamin Turner, his master, noticed Nat’s gift of intelligence and always made remarks of how Nat could do much better things with his life other than being a slave. Two life changing events were soon to happen.

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The only person punished for Civil War crimes, he was sentenced to a hanging on November 10, 1865. Many people protested his sentence, convinced he was only taking orders from the higher-ups. In the end, Henry Wirz had a memorial built in his honor, so that him and the horrors of the Andersonville prison would never be

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Turner’s rebellion consisted of other slaves, around fifty to sixty in numbers, went through the county killing people from farms to plantations. Their plan was to destroy some farms in Jerusalem, VA, but their plan didn’t go accordingly and

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Race Was Invented To Justify Slavery Once people are defined as inhuman because of the color of their skin, you are free to treat them like animals. This is exactly what happened to blacks in America. The first blacks who arrived in Virginia where from Europe, not Africa. They came to Virginia in 1619 and were not initially considered slaves.

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The revolt lasted up to two days, but what we see if Turner actually does not practice the killing himself. Turner finds it hard to find enough courage to even find his former slave owners and slaughter them and their family. It turns out a lot of them actually influenced a lot of his religious point of views, and that “In spite of his enslavement, in spite of his own preaching’s and prophecies, he did not know that he could do it.” (54). A lot of the slave army actually took it too much into their own hands slaughtering infants, children, and any other whites that did not even have part to do with the

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Indentured Servitude to Slavery in Colonial Virginia The first two centuries of colonial Virginia exhibit a significant transformation of the workforce that occupied the land. The beginning of the 17th century was marked by the first settlements in the colony, such as Jamestown, that ushered in an era of indentured servitude. In the end of the 17th century through the start of the 18th century, this labor transitioned to racial slavery. As the American tobacco industry prospered for the rich, the number of indentured servants began to fall, causing the direct development of slavery in colonial Virginia.

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Although slavery was declared over after the passing of the thirteenth amendment, African Americans were not being treated with the respect or equality they deserved. Socially, politically and economically, African American people were not being given equal opportunities as white people. They had certain laws directed at them, which held them back from being equal to their white peers. They also had certain requirements, making it difficult for many African Americans to participate in the opportunity to vote for government leaders. Although they were freed from slavery, there was still a long way to go for equality through America’s reconstruction plan.

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The process of black slavery taking route in colonial Virginia was slow. Black slavery mostly became dominant in the 1680s. Slaves became the main labor system on plantations. The amount of white indentured servants declined so the demand for black slaves became necessary in the mid-1660s. The number of white indentured servants that Virginia had up until the mid 1660s, was enough to meet white peoples labor needs.

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They started with the killing of his owners, the Travis family. For example,”Nat Turner (October 2, 1800 to November 11, 1831) was a slave who became a preacher and made history as the leader of one of the bloodiest slave revolts in America on August 21, 1831. ” When he was younger, Turner was thought to have a special talent because he could describe things that happened before he was born. His mother and grandmother affected his decisions and his choices for the revolt. According to the Nat Turner Biography it states that, “Over the years, Turner has emerged as a hero, a religious fanatic and a villain.

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According to Clarence Lusane, author of "Nat Turner's Rebellion and the Legacy of Violence", "Southern slave owners doubled down and imposed even harsher conditions on those enslaved, more restrictions on blacks who were "free", and absolute intolerance for white who questioned the institution" (Lusane). Not only were the slaves treated worse, but even the, supposed, free African-Americans were as well. This aspect of the aftermath created because of the rebellion proves how unsuccessful he was in abolishing slavery. The strict rules enforced for the free African-Americans especially angered the North because they already believed that slavery was morally wrong. Having harsh laws subjected to free African-Americans must have been seen as worse, the political factor created more political tension between the North and the South.

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Nat Turner’s rebellion turned out to be the bloodiest slave revolt in Southern history, one that was to have a profound and irrevocable impact on the destinies of Southern whites and blacks alike. Nat Turner was an intelligent man, that had the opportunity to study white children’s schoolbooks, and got to experiment in making gunpowder. Nat was also a very religious man, and often served as a preacher to black churches in the area. Many of the people referred to him as being a “prophet.” People saw him as a prophet because he claimed that he was able to speak to the Holy Spirit.

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Slaves obtaining knowledge or an education were then viewed as unmanageable. One can see that through Frederick Douglass’s gain of education; Slavery began to look more than an imprisonment and his mind would not cease to think. With this depressing state of mind, Douglass would begin to plot for ways to obtain his education. Despite living in a country were teaching slaves was unpardonable, Frederick Douglass began to incorporate various ways for his education. He would hide in a separate room and would be suspected by his mistress that he could be reading a book.

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Nat Turner Rebellion Stacey Cofield Florida State College at Jacksonville Nat Turner Rebellion The primary source that I have chosen is Nat Turner Explains His Rebellion, 1831. More than fifty white men, women and children were led to their untimely demised at the hands of Nat Turner. Leading a revolt that was comprised of Black men, some freed and others enslaved, Turner felt his actions were an act of God.

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The Klan bribed him to step down from his seat in government, and he refused. He was whipped many times more. He described the men who tortured him as first-class men who were highly respected in the town such as doctors, lawyers, and farmers (Document B). Many called it “worse than slavery”. Hundreds of lives were taken during the time period of Reconstruction, just by the Ku Klux

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Similar to Frederick Douglass, Nat Turner also understood his slave status through education. In the book “The Confessions of Nat Turner” by Thomas R. Gray, Nat Turner indicated “And my father and mother strengthened me in this my first impression, saying in my presence, I was intended for some great purpose, which they had always thought from certain marks on my head and breast.” When he was a child, he did not realize that the purpose of his life; also, he could not understand what his family member expected on him. However, when he was grew up and began learning to read and write, he knew that he has a responsibility to help himself, his family, and other fellow slaves to escape from slavery and gaining freedom. Moreover, similar to Frederick

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