Summary Of Nat Turner And The American Civil War

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A. The Early Republic and the American Civil War
A1a. Primary source A is Nat Turner. Turner was a slave who lived in southeastern Virginia who aimed to become a preacher. He also learned to read and write. He led a slave rebellion with seventy other slaves in hopes to end their slavery. He killed his owner and his owner’s family as well as fifty-seven other white people within two days’ time. Turner was Christian and would often hear and see Godly spirits and signs from heaven. The revolt ended with his timely death by hanging in late 1831. I believe the goal of the author was to get others to believe that he killed all those people because of signs he had received from heaven that made him believe he was chosen for a greater purpose (Turner, 2006). …show more content…

Primary source A reflects some major events of the American Civil war era. During the early 1830’s, African American slaves tried many strategies to help end slavery. Many freed slaves tried to fight slavery through words. They wrote speeches, books, articles, and started a secret network to freedom called the Underground Railroad. Many African Americans started newspapers, schools, orphanages, and churches. The work of these freed slaves and abolitionists inspired fear from southerners and northerners alike. They were afraid of a rush of freed slaves entering the North. Many opposers to abolition grew violent. During this time in 1830, David Walker, a free African American born in the South died under strange circumstances, after promoting the violent downfall of the slave trade (Norton,2015). Nat Turner kept seeing sign after sign up until 1831 when he began his murderous rebellion. Seeing how violent everyone else was getting trying to enforce and end slavery could have led to Turner believing he needed to help end slavery violently as well. Seeing that anti-abolitionists could be extremely violent towards slaves and abolitionists Turner used violence as a means to end his slavery (Turner,