Slave Rebellion Comparison: The Nat

¶ … Slave Rebellion Comparison: The Nat Turner Revolt of 1831 and the Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia

World History mandates that as the human race, we are apt to repeat our actions over a period of time. One issue that appears throughout history and does not discriminate to any race, religion or creed is slavery. Starting in Biblical times with Egypt's enslavement of the Jews to the more recent time of African-American slavery in the southern states of the United States, slavery has played a key role in inhumanity. In fact, it is the severest form of man's inhumanity to man and woman. Call it a human issue, social or political but slavery was born out of commerce. The act of doing business in the world throughout history has meant businessmen have had to keep up with supply and demand of their products. This has meant a need for labor to produce such product. There is no cheaper form of labor than slavery. Owning a slave reduced the investment to the businessman for labor and increased production because slaves had no rights. They could be worked until exhaustion. This rationale does not excuse such action of economic influence. Still it seems in times past and even presently in of the worst human right's situations found in China and even New York City, slavery has seemed socially acceptable. Sometimes people do not see beyond the value of a dollar. In that of the Old South for White men of the upper class, it seemed the norm to own slaves.

In Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives Past and Present:

Slavery is also presented to us as a paradigm of how most people behave when they are given absolute power over other people. The first effect, of course, is that they start believing in their own superiority and justifying their actions by it. The second effect is that they make a cult of the inferiority of those they subjugate. (Gates, p.34)

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines slavery as "submission to a dominating influence or the state of a person who is a chattel to another" (Mish, p. 1171). The dictionary also defines the word rebellion as an "opposition to one in authority or dominance" but also as "open, armed and unsuccessful defiance of or resistance to an established government" (Mish, p. 1037). This paper will explore these two definitions in relation to two significant slave rebellions in world history. This paper will focus on the Nat Turner Revolt of 1831 and the Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia, also known as Brazil. This paper will outline the history of each region and go into detail of the how and why these rebellions took place when they did. This paper will compare and contrast the social, political and economic reasons and the consequences of these rebellions. This paper will also elaborate on the success or failure of both rebellions.

The Nat Turner Revolt of 1831

History of the Region

In 1830 there were 24 states in the United States and the population stood at 12, 866, 020 people. There 1200 miles of canals and only 23 miles of railroad tracks. About 25,000 new Americans arrived each year, mostly from Europe. The mean center of population in the United States was at 38° 57' 54" North Latitude, 79° 16' 54" West Longitude in Grant County (at the time, Hardy County), West Virginia, 19 miles west-southwest of Moorefield (Historybuff.com). The mean center of population is the point at which an imaginary, flat, weightless, and rigid map of the United States would balance if weights of identical value were placed on it so that each weight represented the location of one person. Virginia was not far behind in population especially in its seaports. Still the expansion westward in the state was increasing yearly.

In the 1830s, America was still a new country. This was a period of great expansion and building of what would become America's infrastructure of roads, canals and buildings. With the acquisition of the Louisiana territory and it becoming a state in 1812, the internal traffic of human bondage skyrocketed despite the official closing of Atlantic trade in America.

America was in the process of defining its own culture and at this time many Americans believed in God's Divine Intervention. They believed America was the Kingdom of God (Greenberg, p. 80). This ideology contributed to the Americans' "part of the comfortable cloud of unknowing that helped preserve a white sense of unreality" (Greenberg, p. 79). It was a period of great movement where families uprooted daily to pursue opportunities of wealth in the West. Also whites from were creating waves of immigrants into the seaports of Virginia and its towns inland. This is the atmosphere in which the Nat Turner Revolt took place.

Blacks first inhabited Virginia in 1619. They came to the sparsely settled Rappahannock Valley long before Fredericksburg was officially founded in 1728. In colonial times, Fredericksburg and Falmouth, across the Rappahannock River in Stafford County, were important centers of trade and commerce. The towns were considered the gateway to the mountains and the way west, but they also served as major seaports. Because of the thriving import-export business in Virginia, there were always many slaves in the area, both owned by local residents, or en route to the interior.

Free blacks also lived in the Fredericksburg area, especially after the Revolutionary War. Some slaves were freed for their participation in the Revolutionary War. Benevolent owners freed some slaves and others were allowed to purchase their freedom. Still others were free because of the legal status of their mothers. Slowly the times were changing but still it would an enormous act of violence to inspire any major changes in the system. It seemed the further north one went the more liberal to cause of freed slaves, people became. Still it would be for the sake of the economy and import/export of goods that would rule the South and its view on slavery politics.

Slavery in the Region

Since the 1790's when slaves rebelled in Haiti and Santo Domingo and slaughtered over 60,000 people, Southerners worried that their own slaves might rise up against them. A number of slave revolt conspiracies were uncovered in the South between 1820 and 1831 but none frightened Southerners as much as Nat Turner's rebellion. At the time, Virginia landowners comprised 20% of the slave-owners in the region. While cotton was king in the south, many of these slave-owners were planters mainly harvesting tobacco and indigo (Lyons, par. 5). Greenberg writes:

the nation had committed itself to slavery, and the South was the keeper. In the 1820's the Southern black population grew from 1.6 million to more than 2 million persons, compromising some 40% of the section's total population, and ranging as high as 70 to 90% in some plantation counties and parishes. (p. 81).

There was a growing consensus that the slave population of America could not be ignored because black people were everywhere. Even the busyness of the South, could shield white men and woman from this growing reality. Still could the white population have foreseen the character of Nat Turner leading a rebellion to start of movement of change? At this time, it was difficult for white people to envision such a threat. Maybe in someone else's county but not his or hers. Why because they were blind to their surroundings.

Who was Nat Turner?

It is thought by many historians that Nat Turner was his original name but that his identity changed with his owners. As much as enslaved people resisted the renaming process, this practice continued. It was typical for a slave to take on the name of his master immediately upon sale. Later in larger slave populations, the slaves were able to assert authority over the naming of their children. This is mainly because at this time, too many whites names were all too common and therefore, too many slaves had the same name, causing confusion in the white community. What sets Nat Turner apart at this time from other slaves is his adoption of a surname or last name. Typically that was the first technique used by the master to gain control of his slaves; they did not have surnames. After all, this would create a sense of humanity for them and that was the last thing the white man wanted. This lack of a surname also made it easier for the slave to be sold because it was only considered property under the eyes of the law. Still Nat Turner before the Revolt, was commonly called in circles "Nat." "Some accounts certainly called the rebel leader 'Nat,' but he was more frequently known as 'Nat Turner'. Also, quite often, his name appeared as 'Gen. Nat Turner,' or 'General Nat Turner,' 'Gen. Nat,' 'The Preacher-Captain,' 'The General,' or 'Capt. Nat'" (Greenberg, p. 6). This only emphasizes his mass-appeal with his people. The fact that he was referred to as Nat Turner is extremely significant in historical accounts. Still it is not completely unheard of for a name to be derived from a longer epitaph of Nat, property of man, Mr. Turner. This is how many people's last names resulted in ending with "man."

Nat Turner was born a slave in Virginia in 1800 and grew to become a slave preacher. He did not use tobacco or liquor and maintained a clean, disciplined life. He was very religious man and became passionate about the Scripture. He began preaching to slaves in and around the area of Southampton County, Virginia in 1828. As a result he became well-known and liked in the area. It was at this time he began having visions. It was these visions that inspired him to revolt. While he waited for further signs, unrest was already evident in on plantations, in the hills and on boats in ports of call (Greenberg, 85). Gradually he built a religious following justifying revolution against his white masters. He believed that God had chosen him to lead the blacks to freedom. After seeing a halo around the sun on August 13, 1831, Turner believed this to be a sign from God to begin the revolt.

The Revolt

Prior to the morning of August 22, 1831, he instructed five slaves Hark, Sam, Nelson, Will, and Jack to meet in the woods at three o'clock that afternoon. Turner later joined them, and the men planned the slaughter. They agreed not to spare women and children. The first report of the Turner revolt was sent in the form of a letter from the Postmaster of Jerusalem to the Governor of Virginia. This letter as sent by way of Petersburg and was first published in the Richmond Constitutional Whig of August 23, 1831. Still it was on the early morning of August 22, 1831, a band of eight Black slaves, led by Nat Turner, entered the Travis house in Southampton County, Virginia and killed five members of the Travis family. Two hours after nightfall, the men went to the house of Joseph Travis, the slaveholder who held Nat Turner in bondage. Using hatchets, Turner's men murdered Travis, his wife, and three children in their sleep. This marks the beginning of a slave uprising that was to become known as Nat Turner's rebellion. Over a thirty-six hour period, this band of slaves grew to sixty or seventy in number and slew fifty-eight white persons in and around Jerusalem, Virginia before the local community could act to stop them (Goldman, par. 1). As the small army moved silently through the countryside, forty other blacks joined them. These included four boys, five free men, and one woman. In the next thirty-six hours, they axed or beat to death fifty-nine white men, women and children in Southampton County. This rebellion raised southern fears of a general slave uprising and had a profound influence on the attitude of Southerners towards slavery. Many blacks did not join Turner because they feared the futility of his effort. The revolt was crushed within two days and Nat Turner managed to escape.

The Aftermath

When news of the insurrection reached Washington, D.C., the Federal government sent 3,000 troops to Virginia. Fearful of more uprisings, the governor of North Carolina sent a state militia to Northampton County, North Carolina. The governor's guards killed forty innocent slaves and free blacks there. Militia units formed throughout the area. When slaveholders heard rumors of more revolts, some even murdered their own slaves. But whites had little reason to fear more rebellions, for African-Americans were also terrified (Lyons, par 8).

Most of Turner's men were killed or arrested within a few days. Meanwhile, Turner took food from Travis' house and dug a hole under a pile of fence rails. He hid there for six weeks. Two slaves with a hunting dog discovered him, but he managed to escape again. Two weeks later, a white farmer with a shotgun spotted Turner in a small hole he had dug with his sword. The fugitive surrendered his weapon and was taken to the county jail in Jerusalem, Virginia.

Nat Turner was hanged two months after the killing, but the effects of his mutiny lasted for decades. No other rebellions occurred, yet whites continued to suspect black ministers of holding secret meetings to plan more revolts. Slave churches were torn down, and white churches enforced segregated seating. For the next twenty years, the laws that governed slaves and free blacks became more brutal and oppressive. Wealthy planters in eastern Virginia owned almost 20% of all slaves in the United States. But few whites in the piedmont and western parts of the state depended on slave labor. After Nat Turner's revolt, they petitioned lawmakers in Richmond to abolish slavery. The planters wanted to protect their investment in human flesh, so they pressured the legislators in Richmond to reject abolition. Some historians believe that if Virginia had ended slavery in the 1830's, the Civil War might have been avoided. But the cruel institution lasted another thirty years and led to America's deadliest war.

The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia

History of the Region

The first Europeans to arrive in Brazil were Spaniards under the command of Vicente Yanez Pinz n, who on January 26, 1500, landed to the north of what is now Bahia, close to the location of present-day Recife (capital of the state of Pernambuco). Next to arrive was the fleet of Pedro alvares Cabral, who was actually on his way to India via a wide southerly swing out into the Atlantic Ocean (to avoid unfavorable currents) before heading east around Africa's Cape of Good Hope. Cabral's fleet landed in the territory, which would come to be called Brazil (in English anyway; in Portuguese it's "Brasil") on the 21st of April 1500 (a Short History of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, pars. 1 & 2). Like many explorers of his time; Cabral had not planned on landing there. Whatever the case he did claim for Portugal the ground upon which he stood calling it the Ilha da Vera Cruz (Island of the True Cross). When it was discovered he had actually been standing on a continent and not an island, the name was changed to Terra da Vera Cruz (Land of the True Cross).

The Indians

The Catholic Church and the Treaty of Tordesillas supported Portugal's claim to Brazil. Pope Alexander VI recognized under the condition of the Treaty that the parties would convert the Indians to Christianity. What was the worry about converting the Indians? The Europeans believed indigenous people were without souls and could stand no harm from accepting Christ. The Church also allowed that those Indians who did not convert could be enslaved, hence, the origins of slavery on the South American continent (a Short History of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, par. 12).

Brazil's Natural Resources

The principal source of wealth provided by Brazil had been brazil wood or a source of a reddish dye. "This was about to be supplanted by white gold and sugar that was to be grown and harvested on immense plantations in Brazil's Northeast" (a Short History of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, par. 16). The country's fortune was in the making. Still it would be the enslaved people both indigenous and African, their sweat and blood that would provide riches for the Europeans.

Slavery in the Region

An estimated 1.3 million slaves were imported into Bahia before slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, double the number imported into the entire United States of America. Why enslave Africans and not Indians? The successful conversion of Indians diminished the pool of available slaves. There was much unrest and the Indians reacted with hostility to Portuguese rule. One example is the Caete Indians treatment of Brazil's first bishop. They ate him. This allowed the Caete to be taken as slaves and converted Indians were mistakenly included. As a result the unrest and European occupation such diseases like smallpox, influenza and measles spread, and then famine. These elements, combined with resistance and flight, led the "Portuguese to abandon the enslavement of natives and to adopt the importation of Africans" (a Short History of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, par. 25). These people were to have a vast impact on Brazil's history and the country's current events today.

The Uprising

Reis writes, "although it was short-lived, it was the most effective urban slave rebellion to ever occur on the American continent" (p. 1). Only lasting a total of three hours, the organizers were Muslim Africans or Mal s. The crux of the matter began with united forces, and Mal's ran from house to house, beating on doors to wake up and alert their colleagues. As this was happening the main contingent moved up the street to the city hall, where esteemed Mal leader Pac'fico Licutan was being held prisoner in the jail beneath the building. Caught in crossfire, the Mal's were forced to retreat. They moved on, skirmishing along the way, moving to reinforce their numbers with a sizable contingent of Mal's coming from the neighborhood of Vit ria. Their trajectory eventually took them past the Largo da Lapa where another skirmish took place, and eventually down to the lower city. The idea was to make their way to an area called Cabrito. Here in Cabrito the Mals of Salvador were to meet up with Mals of the Reconcovo region and together they would establish themselves. It is not clear what their intentions were after this; a couple of marginal participants are on record as having said the Mal's intended to take Salvador. But these were intelligent men, some of whom had experience with military campaigns in Africa, and they undoubtedly would have wanted to know what kind of force and organization they would be facing before launching such a dangerous attack.

This now was the most dangerous part of their trajectory with the sea to the left and high cliffs to the right, the men had to pass the Quartel of the Calvary and the Calvary was ready. The Mal's charged, scattered, chased and hunted down by mounted soldiers, and this effectively was the end of the Mal Revolt. It was also the beginning of the repercussions.