Nat Turner\'s Revolt Against Slavery:

nat turner'S REVOLT AGAINST SLAVERY:

WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME very significant turning point in the history of slavery in America occurred between 1831 and 1832, namely, the emergence of William Lloyd Garrison as the greatest opponent of slavery, the debate on slavery by the Virginia House of Delegates and the rebellion led by Nat Turner which some historians see as "the most important slave rebellion in America's history and which opened the proverbial door to future rebellions and discussions about the existence and consequences of slavery." 1 According to?, the typical form of resistance to slavery in the United States before the Civil War was not "large-scale collective rebellion, but acts of individual...subversions," and although many historians consider Turner's rebellion as noteworthy, "it was only a minor part of the larger story of black resistance to slavery." 2 This viewpoint may certainly be accurate, yet Nat Turner's rebellion of 1831 occurred in the wrong place and at the wrong time, especially when we consider that the rebellion happened in Virginia in 1831 some thirty years before Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and that all loyal Virginians were solidly pro-slavery and exhibited unswerving sentiments along pro-slavery lines.

In August of 1831, Nat Turner, born in 1800 as a slave on the farm of Benjamin Turner in Southampton County, Virginia, and the son of an African-born mother who "had to be restrained from killing her infant son rather than see him as a slave," 3 cut a very bloody path through the county, particularly when he and his fellow rebels attacked the home of Joseph Travis, where Turner entered the house through a second-story window, unbarred the front door to let in his rebellious friends and then ceremoniously murdered Travis and his family. After this incident, Salanthiel Francis, the owner of two of Turner's rebels, was killed in his farmhouse. These two events certainly occurred in the wrong place, for Turner, who was not entirely uneducated, should have known that the Virginia militia would be out after him and his rebels; in essence, it would have suited his needs much better to have attempted some kind of non-violent protest rather than having his rebellion end "with the deaths of sixty whites, more than half of them women and children" and his best friend Bill Artis, to avoid execution, walking into the woods and shooting himself. 4

As to Nat Turner's rebellion occurring at the wrong time, William Lloyd Garrison, the quintessential abolitionist who firmly believed that moral persuasion would convince slaveholders in Virginia to recognize their sinful ways regarding slavery, flat out condemned Nat Turner and his rebel followers. Garrison also warned the South that "if slavery were not abolished peacefully, more insurrections like Turner's rebellion would be inevitable." 5 Also, some historians have argued that in 1831 the state of Virginia was on the verge of abolishing slavery and that Turner's actions destroyed any and all chances of this happening. In reality, this was not true, for it could be said that Turner's rebellion opened the way for debate in Virginia on the issue of slavery. In fact, the Governor Floyd of Virginia, "was convinced by Turner's rebellion that something had to be done to remove slavery gradually from the state." 6 Thus, it is clear that if Turner had waited or perhaps found the patience via his God and his religion to abort his rebellion before it started, slavery in Virginia, if not the entire United States, may have ceased to exist long before the Civil War, thus saving the lives of millions of people.