The Confessions of Nat Turner

I have accessed The Confessions of Nat Turner and have come to find that it dives deep into the method behind the madness that is Nat Turner’s decision to lead a slave rebellion against the whites of Southampton Virginia. I find that it might be the best primary source for the most accurate betrayal; However, I will get into that later. First I’d like to address some information you might find useful for your film. As a possible opener scene for you film, I think it might be ideal to start where the final Sunday dinner with Turner’s most trusted confidants took place in the woods by a Cabin Pond in Southampton County, Virginia.

Some of the major names were Hark, Henry, Sam, Nelson, Will, and Jack. They appeared on the scene long before Nat Turner, which was no accident (289). If you encaptured that scene as an intro to the film, it might allude a mysterious omen that would leave the reader interested and tied into the story.

Then in a quick 180, take the perspective back to young Nat Turner, a begin telling the story with the information as followed.

I found that Nat Turner explains derives his motives from signs of God. When he was the age of three or four he would describe events that happened before his birth, and his parents told him that one day he would be a prophet. He also had mysterious markings on his head and chest when he was a young child and his mother explained to him that he was “intended for some great purpose.

Get quality help now

Bella Hamilton

Verified

Proficient in: Nat Turner

5 (234)

“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

” He took pride in that and spend most of his young life learning and leading. Many people said his was too intelligent to be a slave, which followed him from his childhood until his brief adult life. His intelligence turned into a religious devotion (295). All of his time, that wasn’t devoted to his master, he spent in prayer (979). As he got older, he was traded from master to master, each one never abused him or extremely rough handled him. It was because of this that he never had any hatred towards his masters, but instead he directed it towards slavery itself (295). However, he did attack one of his master’s, Joseph Travis, during the 1831 rebellion after Turner became his property months prior when his previous master Thomas Moore passed away and his widow married Travis (304).

Going back to his religious devotion, in the early 1820’s, “Nat Turner experienced the first of a series of religious revelations” (304). During one of his prayers, a spirit approached Tuner and spoke to him one of his favorite passages “Seek ye the kingdom of Heaven and all things shall be added unto you” (313). When Turner was asked what this spirit was, he could only describe it as the spirit that spoke to all previous prophets, letting Turner believe he was destined to hold a religious purpose (988). He shared his new found knowledge of the spirit with his fellow servants and they agreed that he had a calling from God (997). Overtime he accumulated more of what he believed to be signs from god commanding him “to lead his people in a great battle against slavery” (313). All of these signs that Turner interpreted had him seeing himself “carrying the burden of Christ and only awaited a clear signal from the heavens before he would begin his work of judgment.

The signal came in the form of a solar eclipse on February 12, 1831. Turner hesitated and delayed action, but another signal came in the guise of a green-tinted sin on August 13. By this time, the meaning of the heavenly signs seemed unmistakable to Turner” (322). His friends prepared a dinner in the woods, to which Turner showed up around three o’clock. He was hesitant on joining them for reasons that had caused him not to mix with them in the past. He never disclosed what those reasons were (1041). They stayed at the dinner for about two hours before embarking on their killing spree, sparing no mind to age or gender (1049). Their killing spree came to an end when eighteen white men approached the group, firing at will. Turner ordered his men to fight back until the group of white men retreated leaving Turner’s men to overtake the ones they had thought they left for dead (1101 – 1110). Soon they came into a skirmish with the local militia and they captured or killed all of the rebels. Turner escaped and was successful in doing so for nearly two months until he was captured on october 30, and tried and executed on week later on November 11 (331).

As far as unanswered questions go, I believe the biggest mystery is why he claimed that his biggest enemy was the idea of slavery itself and not the masters themselves, but yet he killed all of those white men, women, and children. He offers his reasoning for choosing to put together the rebellion as signs from God, but he never inexplicably states that those signs told him to kill the master’s and their families. I can’t help but wonder if he had unintentionally gotten lost in his hatred for slavery and lost hold of his true values. It seems highly unlikely that a man of his intelligence level, a man who people proclaimed was definitely connected to a higher being, would intact such a level of violence and hatred onto people, let alone women and children who rarely played a huge part in the ownership of slaves. I feel as though if you added the questioning into the film, it would bring up a whole new question about Nat Turner’s motivations that hasn’t been pondered before in the media.

Lastly, I believe that The Confessions of Nat Turner is the closest we are gonna get to have 100% reliable primary source. The story has its flaws and the fact that it isn’t written by Nat Turner himself is a huge downfall: However, the fact that it is told through perspectives of the locals from that time period is the most accurate perspectives we could probably ever get. It goes into extreme detail in the retelling a of what Nat Turner witnessed when he believed he was receiving signs from God and not to mention, the confessions themselves added the true perspective from Nat Turner. This book is the best primary source that could be used for this film and I stand behind it a hundred percent. The only thing better would be to actually have Nat Turner sit down and talk about everything, but we both know that isn’t possible. As far as using all of this information for your film goes, I hope I was able to help and I appreciate you trusting me to find this information for you.