[Blog] Nat Turner's revolt against slavery

Whenever we speak of the emancipation of slaves and the struggle for their liberation, what comes to our minds most of the time are the names of white abolitionists such as Abraham Lincoln, William Wilberforce, and others. What is less known is that there were black leaders who fought and raised consciousness against this inhuman system of slavery. One of them was Nat Turner.
Nat Turner was born on 2nd October 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. Although a slave, he learned to read and write and became a preacher.

Deep in his bones, he felt the scathing inhumanity of the institution of slavery and vehemently resented the insane brutality and violence that it represented. He believed that the only way to make the white slave owners take cognizance of the inhumanity of their actions was through "revolutionary violence." The dehumanizing system had to be assailed. To attain this objective, Nat Turner felt that he had to begin by regrouping his fellow slaves and sensitizing them on the need to revolt against this abhorrently unjust system. For this purpose, songs in indigenous languages were used (reminding us of sega). According to Terry Bissoon, "one of the ways Turner summoned fellow conspirators to the woods was through the use of particular songs."

After brooding on his project for several years, he initially decided to execute his plan on Independence Day, 4th July 1831. But on that fateful day, he fell ill, and as he was a deeply religious man, he decided to wait for "certain divine signs" before moving forward. Those, according to him, came on August 13 in the form of the Virginia sun appearing as "bluish-green." In fact, it was a result of a volcanic eruption in Ferdinandea Island in Sicily. Nat Turner felt that the propitious time had come. He launched the revolt on August 21.

Armed with knives, hatchets, and blunt instruments, Turner and his fellow slave comrades rumbled on to attack the slave owners. With the rage for freedom fuming within them, they moved from house to house, killed the white slave owners together with their families, and liberated the slaves. They, however, spared the poor whites as the latter "thought no better of themselves than they did of negroes." Around 55 whites were killed in what is considered "the deadliest slave revolt in US history."

The retaliation was swift and brutal. The whites, having twice the manpower of the slaves and equipped with artillery, formed militias to hunt down the rebels. By August 22, the rebellion was quelled, resulting in the death of some 120 slaves. However, as rumors proliferated regarding the spread of the rebellion in Alabama, North Carolina, and other Southern states, the repression redoubled with white violence. The blacks were attacked on "flimsy pretenses," and Richmond Whig reported "the slaughter of many blacks without trial and under circumstances of barbarity." According to The New York Post, the exact number of black victims would never be known.

Nat Turner himself was captured on October 30, tried, and sentenced to death on November 5. Some say that, to set an example, he was beheaded. His body was dissected and "flayed." His skin was used to make souvenir purses, and his skeleton was kept as a "medical specimen" as further humiliation to the slave community.

For most of the time, Nat Turner had historically been regarded as "a symbol of terrorism and violent retribution." However, viewed from the perspective of African Americans, he was considered a hero of resistance, "avenging the sufferings of slaves." According to James H. Harris, Nat Turner's Revolt "marked a turning point in the black struggle for liberation." By the late 20th century, his name was rehabilitated. In 1988, the book Nat Turner: Revolt Leader by Terry Bissoon was included in the Black Americans of Achievement biography series. In 2012, L. Bunch, the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, stated that "the Nat Turner Rebellion is probably the most significant uprising in American history."

Norman Finkelstein, the famous Jewish historian, compared the 7 October Hamas attack to Nat Turner's Revolt. When asked whether he condemned it, he replied: "Imagine a woman being humiliated, beaten, and brutalized every day. One fateful day, she just took a kitchen knife and stabbed the husband. Would you condemn her?"

In Mauritius, Nat Turner reminds us in a certain way of Ratsitatane.

Azize Bankur