Certainly, Styrons Turner is cruel in his taking of close to sixty lives, but he is nevertheless the poet of the aspirations of a people. Gabriel used the promise of a confession to secure his safe transportation from Norfolk, where he was discovered hiding aboard a ship, to the state capital in Richmond, where he was to stand trial on charges of conspiracy and insurrection. While The Confessions of Nat Turner remains the ur-text for anyone who wants to understand Nat Turner, this 5,000-word account creates as many questions as it answers. Thomas Gray Thomas Gray interviewed Nat Turner between his conviction and execution. Thomas R. Gray, a lawyer and plantation owner assigned as Turner's defense counsel, interviewed Turner during his trial and later published The Confessions of Nat Turner, a pamphlet containing the story of Turner's rebellion from his own point of view. Within a week his pamphlet appeared, and it is estimated over 50,000 copies were sold in the next few months. Thomas Ruffin Gray was born in Southampton County, Virginia in the early 1800s. A deeply religious man, he "therefore studiously avoided mixing in society, and wrapped [him]self in mystery, devoting [his] time to fasting and praying. Soon after, he finds "drops of blood on the corn as though it were dew from heaven" and "hieroglyphic characters" on the "leaves in the woods" (p. 10). 1. Who wrote this document? Description Nat Turner (1800-1831) was known to his local "fellow servants" in Southampton County as "The Prophet." On the evening of Sunday, August 21, 1831, he met six associates in the woods at Cabin Pond, and about 2:00 a.m. they began to enter local houses and kill the white inhabitants. In Southampton county Black people came to measure time from "Nat's Fray," or "Old Nat's War." His "Confession," dictated to physician Thomas R. Gray, was taken while he was . "The Confessions of Nat Turner - Summary" Masterpieces of American Literature Steven G. Kellman. Turner is tormented, not knowing why the rebellion ultimately failed if God were indeed on his side; and Gray successfully transforms these doubts into proof that the black race is inferior and that, as he says several times in refrain, [N]igger slavery is going to last a thousand years.. A Brief History of Steamboat Racing in the U.S. Texas-Born Italian Noble Evicted From Her 16th-Century Villa. Each of these texts has demonstrated the power of print media to shape popular perceptions of historical fact, even as each raised critical questions of accuracy, authenticity, and community control over historical interpretations of the past. In the first of several book-length studies to dateThe Return of Nat Turner: History, Literature, and Politics in Sixties America (1992)Albert E. Stone credited Styron with leading twentieth-century readers back to the original scene of the rebellion and, in effect, resurrecting the single most powerful narrative circulating in Nat Turners own day and aftermath. The power of the Confessions of Nat Turner, Stone suggested, lay in its articulation of a basic story, to which all subsequent narratives returned. On November 10th, Gray registered his copyright for the Confessions, in Washington, D.C. Yet, when Turner fell ill, the date passed without action. There, from November 1 through November 3, he was interviewed by Thomas Ruffin Gray, a 31-year-old lawyer who had previously represented several other defendants charged in the uprising. Not everyone, however, loved the novelwhich inspired a backlash that culminated in the 1968 publication of William Styrons Nat Turner: Ten Black Writer Respond, in which Styron was called out for minimizing the degree to which Turner was just one of many slaves who rightfully harbored rebellious desires, among other critiques. eNotes.com, Inc. Thomas Ruffin Gray, an enterprising white Southampton County lawyer, assumed the task of recording Turners confessions. Tens of thousands of Americans have come to know the event only through William Styrons 1967 novelThe Confessions of Nat Turner. The calm way he spoke of his late actions, the expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, still bearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about him. The General is said to have manifested the utmost composure, the U.S. Gazette reported, and with the true spirit of heroism seems ready to resign his high office, and even his life, rather than gratify the officious inquiries of the Governor. In refusing to make a full, free, and voluntary confession, Gabriel deprived posterity of his perspective on the event that bears his name. In an essay titled Thomas R. Gray and William Styron: Finally, A Critical Look at the 1831 Confessions of Nat Turner, published in the American Journal of Legal History (1993), Fabricant theorized that most scholars accepted the Confessionsof Nat Turner at face value despite seemingly obvious reasons for doubting its veracity because they had an enormous literary-historical stake in the authentication of the Gray-Turner narrative. How did he conclude that that something had to do with slavery and rebellion? Following his discovery, capture, and arrest over two months after the revolt, Turner was interviewed in his jail cell by Thomas Ruffin Gray, a wealthy Southampton lawyer and slave owner. For more info on your Download the entire The Confessions of Nat Turner study guide as a printable PDF! Even though Turners situation was a unique one, slave owners at the time had to recognize the potentiality for violence iven the peculiar mix of social, psychological, and racial tensions shaping life on the antebellum plantation thus required a certain logic with which threats to that way of life might be explained (Browne, 316). Efforts to canonize the original Confessions of Nat Turneras a great work of American literature in the 1990s reflected its rising stature within the academy. Often these churches black members met separately from its white members, but on communion day the entire church black and white came together to commemorate Jesuss last supper. One confession of Nat Turner is important, they wrote. The wording and overall structure used to describe the events may very well have been those of Gray, who held a law degree. . Nat Turner hid in several different places near the Travis farm, but on October 30 was discovered and captured. The lawyer Thomas R. Gray meets with Nat Turner, accused of leading a slave revolt, in the Southampton County jail. Gray partook in a military observation of the murders committed by the participants of the rebellion. "Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory", "Looking for Law in 'The Confessions of Nat Turner', https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Ruffin_Gray&oldid=1152309636, This page was last edited on 29 April 2023, at 13:02. Get your custom essay on, Rhetorical Analysis of the Confessions of Nat Turner , Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper, "You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy". 1019 words. During a span of approximately thirty-six hours, on August 21-22, a band of enslaved people murdered over fifty unsuspecting white people around Southampton, Virginia. The second chapter, Old Times Past: Voices, Dreams, Recollections, is essentially a fictional biography of Turner. Perhaps Turners religious separation from the black community can help make sense of perhaps the most surprising thing about Turners religion: the only disciple that Turner named in his Confessions was Etheldred T. Brantley, a white man. Analyzes how thomas r. gray might have used his anger to make turner appear a twisted man. Instead it seems more likely that Brantley was drawn by Turners millennialism, Turners ability to convert Brantleys heart, and Turners success in stopping the outbreak of a disease where blood oozed from Brantleys pores. First, God communicated directly to him: at one point, "the Lord had shewn me things that had happened before my birth." At another. Nat Turner's rebellion put an end to the white Southern myth that slaves were either contented with their lot or too servile to mount an armed revolt. The resulting extended essay, "The Confessions of Nat Turner, The Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, VA.," was used against Turner during his trial. While there was a tradition of white anti-slavery in the regiononly five years before the revolt, Jonathan Lankford was kicked out of Black Creek Baptist church for refusing to give communion to slaveholdersit seems unlikely that Brantley, who was not involved in the revolt, was converted by Turners antislavery. Gray seems to want to emphasize the power of whites following the insurrection, making a point of including the fact that "Nat's only weapon was a small light sword which he immediately surrendered, and begged that his life might be spared" (p. 3). The opportunities to assess and reassess Turners legacy, however, are far from over: The Sundance sensation Nat Turner film, The Birth of a Nation, arrives in theaters in October. Gray used Turners voice to serve his own agenda, which was to ease the impact if the insurrections and to reaffirm slave owners as to why slavery is justifiable. Gray met with Turner at the jail on November 1, introduced the Confessions as evidence at Turners trial on November 5, and secured a copyright for his pamphlet on November 10, the day before Turner was hanged. He claims to have learned to read with no assistance, and he says that religion principally occupied my thoughts (Gray, 5). That was why, shortly before his execution, he reflected, I am here loaded with chains, and willing to suffer the fate that awaits me., Grays judgment on all this? Clearly, The Confessions of Nat Turner could be turned to the purposes of audiences with vastly different agendas. He was asked, if he knew of any extensive or concerted plan. Cookie Settings, The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt, Five Places Where You Can Still Find Gold in the United States, Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Otherand the Birds Loved It, The True Story of the Koh-i-Noor Diamondand Why the British Won't Give It Back. Although his output was small, he introduced new subject matter for poetry. Gray appears to portray Turner in a way intended both to ease the insurrections impact and to aid in the conviction of turner for his actions. APA citation style: Turner, N. & Gray, T. R. (1832) The confessions of Nat Turner, the leader of the late insurrection in Southampton, Va. as fully and voluntarily made to Thomas R. Gray, in the prison where he was confined, and acknowledged by him to be such when read before the court of Southampton: with the certificate, under seal of the court convened at Jerusalem, Nov. 5, for his trial. Thomas Ruffin Gray, an enterprising white Southampton County lawyer, assumed the task of recording Turner's confessions. Even when Nat Turner was captured, on October 30, 1831, the Compilers question had remained unanswered. The shortest and final chapter, It Is Done, echoes the words of Jesus on the cross when he utters, It is finished, shortly before his death. publication in traditional print. The rebellion was stopped within two days, but Turner was not captured until October 30, after which he was tried, convicted and hanged. The story began, Turner said, in his childhood, when he . Less defensible, or at least problematic, was his decision to endow Turner with a contemporary imagination. John K. Roth. The authenticity of this document is something to be contested. By noon of Tuesday, August 23, the insurgents had been killed, captured, or dispersed by local militia. [1], Later in life, at the age of 21, Gray inherited 400 acres of land at the Round Hill plantation which kickstarted his tentative career as a planter. Filmmaker and actor Nate Parker portrays Southamptons most famous son as a warm, encouraging preacher, in the words of the New Yorkers Vinson Cunningham. On August 27, 1831, the Richmond Compiler asked: Who is this Nat Turner? At the time, Turner was hiding in Southampton, Virginia, not far from the site where he launched the most important slave revolt in American history. The final pages of the narrative include a list of the men, women and children killed during the insurrection, followed by the names of the people charged with participating (p. 22). According to Gray, an eclipse of the sun in February inspired Turner to confide in four fellow slaves: Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam. (2016, Dec 25). In 1967, the novelist William Styron published a novel based upon Turners Confessions. Oates is known as a reputable historian through his other works, and has strong credentials however, in the case of The Fires of Jubilee there are some limitations. Turner described himself as uncommonly intelligent for a child (Gray, 6). It is notorious, that he was never known to have a dollar in his life; to swear an oath; or drink a drop of spirits. Nor was Turner motivated by revenge or sudden anger. Turners confessions made clear that he viewed Joseph Travis as a kind master against whom he had no special grievance. Gray and, together, they had a daughter which they named Ann Douglas Gray. Styrons point is that Turner was, in many ways, ahead of his time: This self-taught slave probably had the mind of a genius, and it would be condescending to express his thoughts in language less sophisticated than the writers own. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Gray was born in 1800, the same year as Turner. Gray grew up in a wealthy family with deep roots in Southampton County and powerful connections in local, state, and federal politics. By clicking Check Writers Offers, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. By continuing, you agree to our Terms and Conditions. The Portal for Public History. [3], In 1834, Gray stated that he had studied law in his youth, however, there is no record of him going to college or attending a law school at any point in his life. Turner begins his story by describing his childhood. and then Add to Home Screen. In part, this was because at one point his vision seemed too close to the proslavery religion that most slaves rejected. [16] On the other hand, other scholars have extensively analyzed Gray's confession and have deemed it to be an, overall, reliable source. Turner begins his story by describing his childhood. Illustration (19th-century) of the discovery of Nat Turner following the failure of his rebellion, A Brief History of the Clinton Family's Chocolate-Chip Cookies. Styron fictionalized a historic character, Nat Turner, but nevertheless remained faithful to the known facts, most of which came from the 1831 Confessions of Nat Turner. At this time I reverted in my mind to the remarks made of me in my childhood, and the things that had been shewn meand as it had been said of me in my childhood by those by whom I had been taught to pray, both white and black, and in whom I had the greatest confidence, that I had too much sense to be raised, and if I was, I would never be of any use to any one as a slave. 12. . He tells of being spoken to by the Holy Spirit, of seeing visions and signs in the heavensthat I was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty. In Grays view, He is a complete fanatic, or plays his part most admirably. On November 5th, Nat Turner was tried and condemned to be executed; on November 9th, he was hanged. In August, a sun with a greenish hue appeared across the eastern seaboard.
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