Thomas Ruffin Gray (1800 - unknown) was an American attorney who represented several enslaved people during the trials in the wake of Nat Turner's slave rebellion. Tens of thousands of Americans have come to know the event only through William Styrons 1967 novelThe Confessions of Nat Turner. His answer was, I do not. 13. Given the evidence, Grays representation of Turner is far from accurate. 55, 40 He also at some point married Mary A. While The Confessions of Nat Turner remains the ur-text for anyone who wants to understand Nat Turner, this 5,000-word account creates as many questions as it answers. Corrections? Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S. Did an Ancient Magnetic Field Reversal Cause Chaos for Life on Earth 42,000 Years Ago? The opportunities to assess and reassess Turners legacy, however, are far from over: The Sundance sensation Nat Turner film, The Birth of a Nation, arrives in theaters in October. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington differ? On the night of August 21, together with seven fellow slaves in whom he had put his trust, he launched a campaign of total annihilation, murdering Travis and his family in their sleep and then setting forth on a bloody march toward Jerusalem. Vocabulary diabolical: evil, devilish prophet: a person considered to be a messenger of God perverted: corrupted This novel goes beyond a mere retelling of history to show how the fettered human spirit can splinter into murderous rage when it is goaded beyond endurance, raved TIMEs critic. the person who he baptized, abolitionist, attorney, governor of Virginia, Quaker guy Provide a brief background description of Southampton County, Virginia in 1831. small rural county with many farms around Describe the religious backgrounds of Benjamin and Elizabeth Turner. In the spring of 1831, when Turner and his co-conspirators were deciding the day for the revolt, the rebels selected Independence Day with its obvious political resonances. In a field one day, he found drops of blood on the corn as though it were dew from heaven. When he saw leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters, and numbers, with the forms of men in different attitudes, portrayed in blood, he was reminded of figures I had seen in the heavens.. How did Thomas Nast portray President Grant's role in corruption? Not long afterward, in 1825, Turner had a second vision: I saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkenedthe thunder rolled, and the blood flowed in streamsand I heard a voice saying, Such is your luck, such you are called to see, and let it come rough or smooth, you must surely bare it. This spirit confronted Turner again in May 1828: I heard a loud noise in the heavens and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first.. Perhaps for similar reasons, when blacks referred Turner at the trials, they called him Captain Nat or General Nat, instead of alluding to his religious position as a preacher or a prophet. He argues that the revolt was an isolated event solely fueled by Turners religious extremism and not retaliation against the institution of slavery. Gray used Turners voice to serve his own agenda, which was to ease the impact if the insurrections and to reaffirm slave owners as to why slavery is justifiable. With the help of his father, Gray acquired extensive holdings in land and enslaved people. Within a week his pamphlet appeared, and it is estimated over 50,000 copies were sold in the next few months. In the Confessions, Nat Turner appears more a fanatic than a practical liberator. How did Booker T. Washington impact Georgia? without attempting to make this slightest resistance" (p. 3). He published The Confessions of Nat Turner, the leader of the late insurrection in Southampton, Va., as fully and voluntarily made to Thomas R. Gray in November 1831, after Turner had been executed.. For as the blood of Christ had been shed on this earth, and had . He was asked, if he knew of any extensive or concerted plan. Type your requirements and Ill connect you to Most slaves could not read. Libraries Even though Turners situation was a unique one, slave owners at the time had to recognize the potentiality for violence iven the peculiar mix of social, psychological, and racial tensions shaping life on the antebellum plantation thus required a certain logic with which threats to that way of life might be explained (Browne, 316). By clicking Check Writers Offers, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. The negroes found fault, and murmurred against me, saying that if they had my sense they would not serve any master in the world.. By stating this, it is implied that Turner gave his accounts of that night freely and honestly and that Gray transcribed Turners story word for word. Magazines, Digital Gray, Thomas R. Title. Thomas Gray, a smug, oily prosecuting attorney, urges Nat to "confess" his crimes and make peace with God. Styron fictionalized a historic character, Nat Turner, but nevertheless remained faithful to the known facts, most of which came from the 1831 Confessions of Nat Turner. Turner believes that the signs indicate Christ "was now returning to earth again in the form of dew" and "the great day of judgment" had arrived (pp. Why was Thomas Johnson famous for Maryland? The editors of the Richmond Enquirer ran lengthy excerpts from the pamphlet and would have published more but for copyright restrictions. How were John Brown and Nat Turner alike? Then in 1828 he became a Justice of the Peace and served as a magistrate for the first time. Over the next 36 hours, they were joined by as many as 60 other enslaved and free Negroes, and they killed at least 10 men, 14 women, and 31 infants and children. (1) Thomas R. Gray, met Nat Turner in prison and recorded his account of the slave rebellion in August, 1831. How did Thomas R. Gray describe Nat Turner? > Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction . Gray used his supposed knowledge of law from 1819 to 1822 because of this case. Retrieved from http://studymoose.com/rhetorical-analysis-of-the-confessions-of-nat-turner-essay. It is notorious, that he was never known to have a dollar in his life; to swear an oath; or drink a drop of spirits. Nor was Turner motivated by revenge or sudden anger. Turners confessions made clear that he viewed Joseph Travis as a kind master against whom he had no special grievance. While Turner acknowledged Gray's rendering of his confession as "full, free, and voluntary" during his trial, there can be no doubt that Turner's execution was inevitable, regardless of his confession, given the climate in the state following the insurrection (p. 5). In the first of several book-length studies to dateThe Return of Nat Turner: History, Literature, and Politics in Sixties America (1992)Albert E. Stone credited Styron with leading twentieth-century readers back to the original scene of the rebellion and, in effect, resurrecting the single most powerful narrative circulating in Nat Turners own day and aftermath. The power of the Confessions of Nat Turner, Stone suggested, lay in its articulation of a basic story, to which all subsequent narratives returned. He was the youngest of six children of Thomas and Anne Cocke Brewer Gray. How were John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster similar? Turner was soon captured and the uprising was suppressed. This interview was published as, "The Confessions of. On August 21, 1831 he had lead a violent insurrection. There is also an expenditure of additional energy for the movement by livestock and humans (Osuji 1974; Turner et al. While he was in his 20s, Turner ran away from his owner. Dont know where to start? How did the north respond to Nat Turner's actions? Monroe was somewhat perplexed by this turn of events: From what he said to me, he seemed to have made up his mind to die, and to have resolved to say but little on the subject of the conspiracy. Gabriels refusal to cooperate with state authorities only raised his stature in the eyes of the press. Finally, when the sign appeared again late in August, Turner decided they could not wait longer. How did Thomas Jefferson show civic virtue? He gave more names than any other person had. 15, Thomas R. Gray Nat Turner hid in several different places near the Travis farm, but on October 30 was discovered and captured. NARRATOR (VO) It was there in a jail cell that Nat Turner first encountered a local lawyer, Thomas R. Gray. Indeed, Sundquist wrote, given its formative role in the course of African American cultural history and both anti- and proslavery argument, it is hard to imagine why Turners Confessions should not be accorded the same attention granted, say, Emersons Self-Reliance or Thoreaus Civil Disobedience.'. Works Consulted: Goldman, Steve, "The Southhampton Slave Revolt," HistoryBuff.comA Nonprofit Organization, accessed 23 Oct. 2010; French, Scot, The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831) Encyclopedia Virginia, Ed. Description Nat Turner (1800-1831) was known to his local "fellow servants" in Southampton County as "The Prophet." On the evening of Sunday, August 21, 1831, he met six associates in the woods at Cabin Pond, and about 2:00 a.m. they began to enter local houses and kill the white inhabitants. It was also a family tradition to breed fine horses. ", Reliegious, strong, tall, brave, headstrong. Abraham may have been his father. Gray, who claimed to have said little during Turners narration, asked Turner at one point if he did not find himself mistaken now that the deeds to which he had been called by the spirit had ended in calamity. He shares his mission with four fellow slaves and begins planning; details of how the party was assembled are given on ensuing pages. Spring of 1831, his family lost essentially all of their taxable slaves, its assumed they were forced to sell them because theres no records of them ever freeing anyone. A teacher walks into the Classroom and says If only Yesterday was Tomorrow Today would have been a Saturday Which Day did the Teacher make this Statement? How is Socrates portrayed differently by Plato and Xenophon. He began to exert a powerful influence on many of the nearby slaves, who called him the Prophet.. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital Fortunately, Turners Confessions, recorded by Thomas R. Gray, provides important clues to Turners central religious beliefs. Createyouraccount. This interview was published as, "The Confessions of Nat Turner. Each of these texts has demonstrated the power of print media to shape popular perceptions of historical fact, even as each raised critical questions of accuracy, authenticity, and community control over historical interpretations of the past. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [3], Gray said in 1834 that he had studied law in his youth but theres no record of him going to college or a law school at any point. He and his brother Edwin got involved in court after being involved in a public fight which disturbed the peace. E-Texts in American Studies He did find a survivor who was a 12-year-old girl who gave him a recounting of what happened there. This horrific image of Turner was intended to shape the minds of the public in such a way that their minds would be made up before even reaching turners actual confessions. In Virginia in August 1831, Nat Turner led the only effective and sustained slave revolt in U.S. history, during which some 60 white persons were slain. Faulkner who, in speaking of the differences between the North and the South, was particularly prescient: You must adopt some plan of emancipation, he declared, or worse will follow., Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter, During the mid-20th century, the Nat Turner story was revisited by many, in the course of the movement for the study of black history in schools, an attempt to remedy the fact that many mainstream textbooks glossed over or omitted major turning points in the history of the U.S. if the people involved were black. Grays description of his own apprehensions while transcribing Turners confession was intended to demonstrate the insurrections effect on slave owners at the time. The Confessions of Nat Turner. He was familiar with the outlines of Nat Turners life and the plot, and he was aware of the intense interest and the commercial possibilities of its originators narrative. All rights reserved. How did Rudyard Kipling describe Chicago in 1889? How did Thomas R. Gray describe Nat Turner? With the exception of African-American folk memories, every one of the routes into the mind and world of Nat Turner is through sources produced by people who deeply hated the rebels and their leader. Slaves Executed for the Nat Turner Revolt. Virginia Humanities acknowledges the Monacan Nation, the original people of the land and waters of our home in Charlottesville, Virginia. These confessions were intended to create a powerful, yet vicious, image of Turner and his reasons for initiating such a devastating. While still a young child, Nat was overheard describing events that had happened before he was born. Turner pleads not guilty and is quickly found guilty and sentenced to death via hanging (p. 20). How were Booker T. Washington and Ben Franklin similar? Nat's first master was Samuel Turner, a wealthy Virginia aristocrat who believed in educating his slaves. The confessions begin with a description of events from Turners childhood that, according to Gray, led him to believe that he destined to fulfill a prophecy. Gray vividly describes Turners unrelenting nature as, The calm, deliberate composure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, still bearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about him; clothed with rags and covered with chains; yet daring to raise his manacled hands to heaven, with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man; I looked on him and my blood curdled in my veins (Gray, 11). 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