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Nat Turner: A Slave In American History

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Nathanial Turner was a slave that lived from 1800 to 1831. According to legend, his mother was so determined not to subject him to a life of slavery that she tried to kill him as soon as he was born. She was tied to her bed and held away from him until she calmed down. After that brief moment, however, Nat’s mother lavished love and affection on him. While Nat was very young, his parents and grandmother searched his head and body for bumps and marks that were, in African religion and folklore, signs of prophecy. (Bisson, Terry pg.15) He knew he was meant for something, and this rebellion was it. He was the only slave to lead an effective slave revolt against whites. Nat Turner was the riskiest slave in American history.

He was born on the Virginia plantation of Benjamin Turner, who allowed him to be instructed in reading, writing, and religion. Sold three times in his childhood and hired out to John Travis in the 1820’s, he became a fiery preacher and leader of African-American slaves on Benjamin Turner’s plantation and in …show more content…

Everyone was captured … except me. I was hiding for a time span of about 6 to 8 weeks. Someone found me, rose their gun, and forced me to surrender.

I was thrown in Southampton County Jail until my trial approached. Before my trial, a man who described himself as a “historian,” named Thomas Gray came in my cell and asked me about my thought process and plans for my rebellion. I told him about everything. The signs that led me to begin the rebellion and my childhood prophecy. I told him all of the plantations I have been to and my all of the masters I have had. We talked for while about everyone my rebels killed and all of my rebels. The historian looked frightened as he spoke to me, but he wrote notes down about what I said, and recorded my words as I said them. “Do you find yourself mistaken?” the historian said to me about the rebellion. I replied, “Was Christ not crucified?” (Burnett,

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Stephen B. Oates writes about a slave named Nat Turner, who led a rebellion against slavery in the book “The Fires of Jubilee”. Turner was born on October 17, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. His mother Nancy was bought by a man named Benjamin Turner in 1795 and was transported to America. Nat’s father was never named, but was married to Nancy.

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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.

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The Fires of Nat Turner In the book The fires of Jubilee, we notice and go through a lot of Nat Turners violent “rebellion” as a former slave in order to get back at what they have gone through. Nat turner takes a complete different approach than what we saw with our letter from Hammond. Nat Turner with the help of a few other former slaves, have created the highest fatalities during his “rebel” from any slave up rise ever recorded. The book was written from a man who has caught his first ever taste of what freedom was like, which is what initially fueled his need for the rebellion.

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