Nat Turner was born on October 2, 1800, in Southampton County, Virginia, the week before Gabriel was hanged. While still a young child, Nat was overheard describing events that had happened before he was born. This, along with his keen intelligence, and other signs marked him in the eyes of his people as a prophet “intended for some great purpose.” A deeply religious man, he “therefore studiously avoided mixing in society, and wrapped [him]self in mystery, devoting [his] time to fasting and praying.”
In 1821, Turner ran away from his overseer, returning after thirty days because of a vision in which the Spirit had told him to “return to the service of my earthly master.” The next year, following the death of his master, Samuel Turner, Nat was sold to Thomas Moore. Three years later, Nat Turner had another vision. He saw lights in the sky and prayed to find out what they meant. Then “… while laboring in the field, I discovered drops of blood on the corn, as though it were dew from heaven, and I communicated it to many, both white and black, in the neighborhood; and then I found on the leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters and numbers, with the forms of men in different attitudes, portrayed in blood, and representing the figures I had seen before in the heavens.”
On May 12, 1828, Turner had his third vision: “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… And by signs in the heavens that it would make known to me when I should commence the great work, and until the first sign appeared I should conceal it from the knowledge of men; and on the appearance of the sign… I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with their own weapons.”
At the beginning of the year 1830, Turner was moved to the home of Joseph Travis, the new husband of Thomas Moore’s widow. His official owner was Putnum Moore, still a young child. Turner described Travis as a kind master, against whom he had no complaints.
Then, in February, 1831, there was an eclipse of the sun. Turner took this to be the sign he had been promised and confided his plan to the four men he trusted the most, Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam. They decided to hold the insurrection on the 4th of July and began planning a strategy. However, they had to postpone action because Turner became ill.
On August 13, there was an atmospheric disturbance in which the sun appeared bluish-green. This was the final sign, and a week later, on August 21, Turner and six of his men met in the woods to eat a dinner and make their plans. At 2:00 that morning, they set out to the Travis household, where they killed the entire family as they lay sleeping. They continued on, from house to house, killing all of the white people they encountered. Turner’s force eventually consisted of more than 40 slaves, most on horseback.
By about mid-day on August 22, Turner decided to march toward Jerusalem, the closest town. By then word of the rebellion had gotten out to the whites; confronted by a group of militia, the rebels scattered, and Turner’s force became disorganized. After spending the night near some slave cabins, Turner and his men attempted to attack another house, but were repulsed. Several of the rebels were captured. The remaining force then met the state and federal troops in final skirmish, in which one slave was killed and many escaped, including Turner. In the end, the rebels had stabbed, shot and clubbed at least 55 white people to death.
Nat Turner hid in several different places near the Travis farm, but on October 30 was discovered and captured. His “Confession,” dictated to physician Thomas R. Gray, was taken while he was imprisoned in the County Jail. On November 5, Nat Turner was tried in the Southampton County Court and sentenced to execution. He was hanged, and then skinned, on November 11.
In total, the state executed 55 people, banished many more, and acquitted a few. The state reimbursed the slaveholders for their slaves. But in the hysterical climate that followed the rebellion, close to 200 black people, many of whom had nothing to do with the rebellion, were murdered by white mobs. In addition, slaves as far away as North Carolina were accused of having a connection with the insurrection, and were subsequently tried and executed.
The state legislature of Virginia considered abolishing slavery, but in a close vote decided to retain slavery and to support a repressive policy against black people, slave and free.
I love “Queen Sugar.”
Didn’t I say this last year that folks were going to be coming out of the woodworks to DISH the DIRT on old FILTHY Trump. it’s all a coordinated, premeditated effort to take that bitch out
In a few months the books will start rolling out…telling us what deals were cut…what promises were made… what was really done and said behind closed doors…
So many lines have been crossed…it won’t be possible to ever stuff back the many released genies into their various bottles…
So many unethical things have been done and gleefully and brazenly touted and allowed …some in the name of taking Trump down..
But beware they don’t become the norm…and beware some of the same tactics and some of those same things aren’t used to undermine or do in completely innocent folk…or good folks who buck the system ..refuse to get in line…or play along… in the future…
There are so many dirty hands and so many complicit…and none innocent…or honorable…or selfless…
None of what’s being done by any of these players has been done for love of country…or for we the people…it’s all to advance the personal, and the political and the economic interests of specific people and specific special interests…none of which benefits us…
One wonders why there wasn’t this same concerted effort to help get stuff done on behalf of the American people …instead of 8 years of obstruction and undermining by many of the very same folks who now conspire together…and would now want us to believe they care so much about this country …and democracy …and preserving our union…and don’t let anyone fool you into think they’ve had an awakening…or regrets …if they had to do it again, they would still undermine and obstruct and cheer on and play golf with Trump…except that they’d mine and collect so much mor damaging data to keep him from running against them and their preferred candidate(s)…
It all looks to be so much more than just #NeverTrump…and it is ..
It all smacks of something rather sinister…and if I were not my mother’s daughter, it would be very easy to believe some of the conspiracy theories out there…
Not much adds up…or makes sense any longer…
Not the alliances…or the weak sauce being served the American people…even with all the supposedly ‘smart’ folk aligned …and being so mediocre and obvious in their doing…
And especially, not the lame manipulation the media is uniformly serving up… day in and day out and in complete unison…
Don’t look there….look here…
Look over there…Don’t look over here…
May God bless and help us…
I have to admit, I haven’t seen it yet. But there’s a lot of stir about this movie. Generally, that leads to good sales for a movie. In this situation, not so much.
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/786345245273227265
CRIMINALS, all of them. But we don’t see the National Guard, tear gas, and attack dogs coming for them. Scamming, robbing, stealing, cheating in broad daylight.
et, the very folk who go out and protest against police brutality, killings, racial profiling get tagged by federal troops to BE QUIET
https://twitter.com/ThePlugSociety/status/786333935634636800
RIP
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/786329009701265409
Life…death…sickness…dying…dying young…
One never knows what the future holds…or what it brings in the end…may he rest in peace..
Ruth Bader Gingsburg doesn’t have a clue what it is to be black in America. She should shut her mouth.
https://twitter.com/Dorofcalif/status/786262957739036672
RGB should do her job in the SCOTUS. If these judges were actually doing their jobs, Colin Kap wouldn’t be DOING IT FOR THEM.
Tweet that, SG2.
GIRL BYE!
Done
That explains her friendship with Scalia… Impossible to sup regularly with any companion over many years and not share or cosign some of their perspectives…
They are all really the same in the end…yes, even those who pretend to be on our side…those who share our party affiliation – but still hold and share the same deeply-held negative feelings and perspectives about black people…and black issues..
The uniform feelings and expressions of contempt…condescension..the conscious and unconscious and inate sense of superiority…the absence of real humanity or deep empathy …that isn’t laden with exploitation or a missionary or savior complex that instantly turns vicious when the ‘saved one’…the human project …the lucky recipient of their benevolence…the object of the mission doesn’t sufficiently express their gratitude…or worse, dares to step beyond their containment…or dares to cross or challenge the master…or heaven forbid, aspires to more or dares exceeds the mighty savior…
The only difference is how folkkks choose to serve up their racism…
And how we prefer it served us…blatant or stealth…or not quite so stealth…or not at all..
Never mind the newly-found, over the top, suffocating and blatantly phony and exploitative very temporary kumbayah ‘outreach’ and ‘oneness’ … and the sudden ‘we are all in in this together’ fake narrative…and the fake ‘love’, ‘attention’ and sudden faux-outrage and sudden expressions of faux-solidarity…even though they’d ignored or pretended not to notice all along as black folks were killed and maligned and disrespected and disregarded …and they rolled their eyes dismissively as black issues in general were inconveniently brought up …
But it’s election time again…and this one even more ‘special’ they tell us for the what and the who of it all…and so, now more than ever before, all manner of tricks are being turned out and turned up to coerce, con, strong-arm, confuse, shame and guilt folks into voting a particular way…and they come looking for the firewall…the black votes…and to exploit black folks yet again…even some supposedly ‘woke’ black folks… and only to advance the agenda and the political ambitions of folks who only remember black folks and black issues at election time…and only as talking points to be once again immediately cast aside post elections…
This recent deliberate downplaying and mucking up of racism with sly attempts by feminists who’d rather think misogyny a more pressing and important issue and would rather talk misogny but only as it affects white women…and who have long been silent on and practically ignored the plight of black women…and never fought for black women…or even acknowledged the many instances and many ways black women – including the first black First Lady – have been brutlized, traumatized, dehumanized, demeaned and dismissed …including at the hands of some of these same so-called feminists through the years… this idea that somehow those who have made ‘feminism’ their thing…and wielded it specifically to advance the specific agenda of white women…this idea that they suddenly do us a favor by mentioning racism in passing as they push for their more ‘important and urgent’ agendas…And only to exploit our voice and vote on behalf of one of their own, is real – and offensive…
But how dare anyone ever question RBG’s heart or bona fides ….she is after all another one of those who’s been talked up and sold us as ‘progressive’ and a liberal feminist icon… It is also said that she likes President Obama (the instant absolution and get out of jail free card for many an ‘open-minded’, ‘progressive’ unconscious/conscious/stealth racist)… much is made too of their annual warm embrace ‘ritual’ at the State of the Union …but as usual, after 8 long years, I’ve yet to see any even marginal interaction with… or hear anything about RBG’s and the black FLOTUS…which is always for me the the more apt and pertinent and very telling gauge…
As we are brazenly bombarded with and force-fed so much phoniness and lies and double standards and faux-outrage and deliberate and selective information and misinformation… and deliberately suppressed and muddled up bits to manipulate the citizenry to achieve a particular outcome come November 8…I caution my fam…beware…be careful…
This is not about us…never has been….never will be…
https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/786223071359270912
Yes, because Gov. Scotty wasn’t going to go for that voter registration extension. The GOP are pathetic in their attempts to stymie our votes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY4-8yS59ro
Hoping to extend ‘Let Girls Learn’ beyond 2017, the Obamas lay out a road map
FIRST LADY Michelle Obama announced a $5 million expansion to her Let Girls Learn initiative – amassing more than $1 billion in private sector donations since she launched the effort 18 months ago.
“This is personal for me,” Obama told students on Tuesday. “I wouldn’t be here — not just in this chair, but in the life that I have — without my education.” (Juliet Eilperin and Krissah Thompson)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hoping-to-extend-let-girls-learn-beyond-2017-the-obama-lay-out-a-road-map/2016/10/10/cd477150-8f3e-11e6-9c52-0b10449e33c4_story.html?wpisrc=nl_daily202&wpmm=1
Watching the CNN documentary on Let Girls Learn and the First Lady’s visit to Liberia and Morrocco as I type..
I’m just getting home. My daughters have been texting me about the documentary. LOL They are loving it, and of course they are commenting on how LAID FLOTUS’ hair is in AFRICA.
SHE GOT A TEAM
Good Morning 😄, Everyone 😉
10 things Birth of a Nation got right about Nat Turner
http://blog.oup.com/2016/10/birth-nation-nat-turner/
On Sixty Minutes, when filmmaker Nate Parker was asked if Birth of a Nation was historically accurate, he noted, “There’s never been a film that was 100% historically accurate. That’s why they say based on a true story and doesn’t say, ‘A true story.’” Hollywood may not be the best place to learn one’s history, but here are ten things that the new movie Birth of a Nation got right about Nat Turner’s revolt:
1.Nat Turner was a literate slave. While most slaves were illiterate, Nat Turner could read. We do not know exactly how he learned to read. When he was recounting the story of his life, he saw it as a miracle that he learned to read without being taught, but Thomas R. Gray, the man who transcribed Turner’s confession, explained his literacy in the same way that Nate Parker did: he had been taught by his owners.
2.Nat Turner had a family, including parents, a wife, and a child. As Turner told his story to whites, he even recalled a “very religious” grandmother, to whom “I was much attached.” Unfortunately, we do not know as much about his family as we would like. We do not even know Turner’s wife’s name: some historians think that her name was Cherry while others think that her name was Mariah or even possibly Fanny. He also had a child, although that child was not a girl, as Parker imagined him, but a boy named Redic.
3.Nat Turner’s father escaped slavery. In a dramatic moment in Birth of a Nation, Turner’s father is forced to run away and is never seen again. We actually know nothing about the circumstance of Turner’s father’s escape, but Turner believed his father had escaped “to some other part of the country.”
4.Nat Turner was a religious man. According to the Confessions, Nat Turner recalled “devoting my time to fasting and prayer.” He believed that “The Spirit that spoke to the prophets in former days” spoke to him as well.
https://twitter.com/3ChicsPolitico/status/786094919714758656
That is creepy and gross.
EVIL with a capital
E
Good morning, everyone!
Good Morning, SG2 & Everyone. Love the post today. I’m going to see Birth of a Nation this weekend.
I’m going to watch the entire first season of Underground this winter.
Good morning. I want to see Birth of a Nation too.