47), Turner was preacher only in the sense that he was preaching to his fellows on some days about his God given mission and things to come. The causes and motifs for Turner's rebellion are still debated over. The documents written during the trial and ever since are agreeing on two facts that are certain: the very existence of the rebellion and the fact that it was organized under the leadership of Nat Turner. The facts about what happened during the day of the rebellion indicate that Turner and his acolytes who were approximately seventy people killed in cold blood almost sixty white people, regardless of their age or gender. The rebellion was indeed preceded by events that pointed toward a common cause found through Christianity and offered as a new form of freedom and a new ethnic identity offered by firm beliefs in supernatural and the power of the new faith preached by the Baptist missionaries and adopted to their own beliefs by the black slaves. Turner may have heard about the new liberation movements and the northern abolitionists and therefore he may have chosen his primary goal in starting an insurrection as being that of...
(Greenberg, 2003, pg. 49)
The rebellion failed in whatever goals might have had, but its importance in the history of slave abolition and civil rights is indisputable. It was the most important rebellion in the history of American black people and although it did not meant immediate liberation for the slaves, it marked the memories of those who were enslaved and helped them find motivation for their further actions.
Works Cited
Greenberg, Kenneth S., ed. Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003
Akinyela, Makungu M. Battling the Serpent: Nat Turner, Africanized Christianity, and a Black Ethos. Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Jan., 2003), pp. 255-280
Reckord, Mary. The Jamaica Slave Rebellion of 1831. Past and Present, No. 40 (Jul., 1968), pp. 108-125
Society: 1800s-1850s. Resisting Slavery. 2007. American Anthropologicval Association. Retrieved: Oct 2nd, 2008. Available at: http://www.understandingrace.org/history/society/resisting_slavery.html
