Joseph Turner Dbq

“Those who deny the freedom of others, deserve it not for themselves.” This quote by Abraham Lincoln encapsulates a period of sadness for African Americans in the United States, as freedom was never an option for them no matter the circumstances in the South. During a period of heavy enslavement in the United States, slaves found themselves at the will of an unjust system where everyday cruelty found itself commonplace as generations were born to suffer through this. Various abolitionists tried rising against the ideas of slavery, and through various books and awareness of these problems, the Civil War tensions grew as both sides began to reach their boiling point. However, some of these abolitionist movements were not as peaceful as the rest,

On May 12th, 1828 Turner got his third vision in which Turner recounted, “‘...I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with their own weapons’" (Turner). This vision set Turner to begin to wait for “the sign” that he was told to await to strike his rebellion against those keeping him in enslavement. At the beginning of the year 1830, Turner had been moved into the house of Joseph Travis, when only a year later in 1831, an eclipse gave Turner a sign to begin his planning on one of the bloodiest slave revolts in Virginia’s history known as “Nat Turner’s Rebellion.” Nat Turner’s involvement with this abolitionist movement was one that is confusing to uncover, as he knew the injustices he had to face as a slave jumping from home to home every few years. Turner was merely listening to the signs of God he believed in, motivated by the freedom he sought after it all (Gale). Turner was not like other abolitionists at the time, he fought for the freedom of slaves by following messages he believed were from God and for his

His rebellion would go on to be one of the only effective slave rebellions that had ever taken place during this period in the United States and struck a fear in Southerners that would further the Civil War. Nat Turner’s Rebellion embodies just how much resentment slaves could hold for the slave owners who kept them from plantation to plantation. Scaling how effective Turner’s Rebellion was followed just what it caused for the South and Virginia after Turner was caught and executed. Turner’s Rebellion was not for nothing, it changed just how much the South would fear African Americans as time passed. Virginia at first debated about even fully ending slavery, but by this point, it was embedded in the culture of the state, so the alternative served restrictions and harsher penalties on activities for all African Americans (Gale). At first, this seemed as if Turner’s Rebellion failed, but truly it shows just how effective it was, the Virginia legislature couldn’t find themselves fully agreeing on what to do and turned to oppress them