HISTORY
Remembering the `great bandit'
GIRIDHAR KHASNIS
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Was Nat Turner, the man behind the first revolt ever attempted by black slaves 175 years ago, a criminal or revolutionary? The debate continues even today.
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Controversial figure: A drawing shows Nat Turner preaching to fellow slaves. PHOTO: THE GRANGER COLLECTION, NEW YORK
"FRIENDS and brothers: We are to commence a great work tonight. Our race is to be delivered from slavery, and God has appointed us as the men to do his bidding, and let us be worthy of our calling. I am told to slay all the whites we encounter, without regard to age or sex... Remember that we do not go forth for the sake of blood and carnage... Remember that ours is not a war for robbery and to satisfy our passions; it is a struggle for freedom..."
With these words, Nat Turner launched a bloody campaign against white American masters in a remote region of southeastern Virginia. On that fateful night of August 22, 1831, more than 50 white people were butchered by his band; many others were severely wounded or disabled.
"It is the first instance in our history of an open rebellion of the slaves," wrote Thomas R. Gray, the court-appointed attorney to whom Turner later made a detailed confession. "It will be long remembered in the annals of our country and many a mother, as she presses her darling infant to her bosom, will shudder at the recollection of Nat Turner, and his band of ferocious miscreants."
Brutal suppression
The mass murder of whites by black slaves lasted less than 48 hours. By August 24, the revolt had been brutally quelled by some three thousand local residents and militiamen, who unleashed their own "white terror" by chasing and slaughtering many innocent blacks. They hung freshly severed black heads on signposts as a warning to other slaves.
The insurgent slaves were shot and killed, or captured and put on trial for execution. Turner, for whose capture a $1,100 reward had been announced, managed to elude his pursuers for six weeks. He was finally apprehended on Sunday, October 30, in a cave under a fallen tree near the residence of his late owner, Joseph Travis.
Once in custody, Turner confessed fully to his crimes, but pleaded not guilty. Gray's account of Turner's confessions, when published in Richmond early 1832, became the single significant contemporary document concerning the insurrection. The report — actually a brief pamphlet of about 20 pages called The Confessions of Nat Turner — described Turner as the "great Bandit" and a "loomy fanatic"
During his trial, Turner introduced no evidence, submitted no argument. He was sentenced to death for "plotting in cold blood, the indiscriminate destruction of men, of helpless women, and of infant children". Legend has it that the sun darkened and a storm gathered on the day of Turner's execution on November 11, 1831. The Southampton Insurrection reported: "The bodies of those executed, with one exception, were buried in a decent and becoming manner. That of Nat Turner was delivered to the doctors, who skinned it and made grease of the flesh. Mr. R.S. Barham's father owned a money purse made of his hide. His skeleton was for many years in the possession of Dr. Massenberg, but has since been misplaced." At the time of his death, Turner was no more than 31 years old.
Enigmatic figure
One of the most complex, enigmatic and intriguing figures in American history, Turner was born on October 2, 1800 as the "property" of a wealthy plantation owner. He is said to have possessed, even as a child, an uncommon intellect, and a probing and perceptive mind; among other things, he could spell the names of different objects without any prompting, leave alone education. As he grew up, Turner spent considerable time in prayer, and claimed a communion with the Spirit. He also got involved in religious whimsies marked by omens, signs, and visions, and soon became a popular religious leader among fellow slaves. Ultimately, "Reverend" Turner and his followers were convinced that he had been chosen by God to lead them to freedom.
Over the years, for millions of African-Americans, Turner has conjured up the image of a brave and reverential figure in the underground history of American slavery. Many of them distrust the "confessions" as published by Thomas Gray. Directing their ire and indignation to many inconsistencies and incongruities in the so-called "confessions", they perceive Gray as no more than a slaveholder mired in financial difficulty, with a hunger for recognition (and a quick buck). They insist that Turner's and Gray's agendas are glaringly at variance in the text and point out to several ambiguities that have characterised the document for over a century and a half.
One hundred and thirty five years after Gray's report, based on a transcript of the testimony, William Styron published a fictionalised account of the famed slave revolt. The book — also titled The Confessions of Nat Turner — went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1968. Told from Turner's point of view, the novel recounts the slave's last days as he waits for his death sentence. The book was hailed as a memorable literary achievement. "Styron's narrative power, lucidity and understanding of the epoch of slavery achieve a new peak in the literature of the South," declared Time magazine.
The novel also generated one of the bitterest intellectual battles of the 1960s. While notable African-American authors, Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin defended the novel, many members of the black intelligentsia were outraged and saw the book as a clichéd conception of a black man. Lerone Bennett, an eminent historian of African-American culture, wrote: "In William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner, we do not get the voice of Nat Turner. The voice in this confession is the voice of William Styron. The images are the images of William Styron. The confession is the confession of William Styron."
Many others even accused Styron of having "raped the image of Nat Turner and presented a disemboweled version of an African hero". One of the books which vehemently attacked Styron's novel was William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond; it was later re-issued as The Second Crucifixion of Nat Turner. So, who was the real Nat Turner? A criminal or a revolutionary? The saga of "the Great Bandit" continues even today — one hundred and seventy five years after his death!
giridharkhasnis@gmail.com
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