Essay On The Nat Turner Rebellion

Africans Americans were shipped off to the Americas pre destined to live a tough life. Betrayed by their own race, they were hunted down by black traders and sold for a hefty pay to the white traders. African families were then separated and forced into slave ships where they suffered bad treatment and experienced awful living conditions, such as, being crammed in small areas, chained, and naked (Equiano, “The Middle Passage,” 50). Many Africans predicted what was coming for them and attempted to end their own life by jumping over board rather than live a life of slavery. An attempt on suicide would result in a cruel punishment. Once in America, the Africans were sold to wealthy white men, most of who owned large plantations, and were put to work from sunrise to sundown six days of the week (lecture). These plantations were where the slaves’ worst nightmares came true and where they soon grew tired of the unfair treatment and …show more content…
This rebellion also goes to show the secretive manners of the slaves to acquire certain skills they desired without receiving punishment from their masters. Turner used his secret readings skills to obtain higher knowledge and act out against the slave owners. Nat Turner may have been one of many slaves who used their secretly acquired skills to expand the knowledge of the other slaves that they interacted with in their lives. Taken away from their home land in Africa, separated from their families, and treated in a cruel manner by white slave owners, the black race had enough. Some stayed quiet because they feared for their life, but others went out and broke the law by doing things that was prohibited for the blacks to do. By doing this, Turner showed how he used slave resistance after being tired of the cruel and unfair treatment leading up to a