How Did Nat Turner Really Free

Nathaniel “Nat” Turner was born on a plantation in Southampton County, Virginia on October 2, 1800. Nat was the son of two captive slaves, his mother Nancy brought to the United States in 1795, and his father, unknown to Nat, escaped to the north while Nat was a young boy. Nat exhibited an exceptional ability to learn and he displayed an unusually vivid imagination. As a child, Nat was allowed to learn to read and received some education not often extended to other black children. Nat was allowed to study The Bible by his owners Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Turner. This study lead Nat to believe he had a gift and he was destined for greatness. Nat truly did not know, or fully understand, he was a slave. He felt free. By 1810, Benjamin Turner died and Nat was inherited by Samuel Turner, the brother of Benjamin Turner. Nat was allowed to continue the worry free life of a young black child until two years later, at the age of 12, when Nat was sent to the fields with all of the other “of age” black slaves.

Nat was infuriated by his being cast into the lot of what he perceived to be …show more content…
I thought the book was a positive read because I was somewhat ignorant of the plight of the black slave in early America. It brought a better understanding of why and how the black religious attitudes of the older black generations are so fervent and committed. Although it angered me to read how the whites were slaughtered, man, women, and child, it also brought some understanding to the rage of the black slave. With the reprisal killings of innocent blacks, it further reinforced my belief that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. I think this text was informative, however I can see how this material could be used to indoctrinate people to believe that murder and wholesale slaughter could be justified by anger, much like the terrorist actions we see today by Islamic