Comments on: 1831: Nat Turner

By: ExecutedToday.com » 1852: John and Jane Williams, slaves

ExecutedToday.com » 1852: John and Jane Williams, slaves — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:49:24 +0000

[...] obviously, did not) administered in the small hours July 19th was just the sort of thing to tap white slaveholders’ fears. (Reportedly, they were cruel masters and had recently threatened to sell Jane without also selling [...]

By: Greg Eichelberger

Greg Eichelberger — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:47:20 +0000

A typical scene of the rebellion was related to Turner’s attorney, Thomas Ruffin Gray, while Turner awaited his execution:

“I took my station in the rear, and as it was my object to carry terror and devastation wherever we went, I placed fifteen or twenty of the best armed and most relied on, in front, who generally approached the houses as fast as their horses could run; this was for two purposes, to prevent escape and strike terror to the inhabitants - on this account I never got to the houses, after leaving Mrs. Whitehead’s, until the murders were committed, except in one case.

“I sometimes got in sight in time to see the work of death completed, viewed the mangled bodied as they lay, in silent satisfaction, and immediately started in quest of other victims.

“Having murdered Mrs. Waller and ten children, we started for Mr. William’- having killed him and two little boys that were there; while engaged in this, Mrs. Williams fled and got some distance from the house, but she was pursued, overtaken, and compelled to get up behind one of the company, who brought her back, and after showing her the mangled body of her lifeless husband, she was told to get down and lay by his side, where she was shot dead.” (”Confessions of Nat Turner”)

Just so people today don’t get the impression that it was all one-sided …

By: Greg Eichelberger

Greg Eichelberger — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:23:25 +0000

I will not discuss the roots and causes of the rebellion, but you fail to mention the number of children killed in the insurrection, or how they died. Most were horribly slaughtered with axes or knives because Turner decreed, “Nits grow into lice.” Several families of 10 or more were killed together, which he describes quite graphically. By the way, Turner himself reportedly killed just one person - a young girl he throttled with a fence post.
Of course, the white retribution was swift and terrible, as well, with shootings, hangings and even beheadings as a warning to other would-be revolt leaders.

By: ExecutedToday.com » 1832: Samuel Sharpe, “I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery”

Sat, 23 May 2009 05:06:15 +0000

[...] Contrast with the much smaller, much bloodier rebellion of Nat Turner in the U.S., which preceded the Christmas Rebellion by a few [...]

By: ExecutedToday.com » 1822: The audacious Denmark Vesey

ExecutedToday.com » 1822: The audacious Denmark Vesey — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:00:39 +0000

[...] slave revolts shaking the Caribbean, the Denmark Vesey plot was the South’s worst nightmare: Nat Turner, multiplied by about nine [...]

By: ExecutedToday.com » 1859: John Brown’s body starts a-moulderin’ in the grave

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:24:49 +0000

[...] attempted armed insurrection –- even an abortive one –- stoked longstanding Southern fears of slave rebellions, leading the South to reorganize and equip its outdated militias, and the Union to increasingly [...]

By: Dr. Thinus Coetzee

Dr. Thinus Coetzee — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 08:28:28 +0000

This makes me think of our own history in South Africa what with our own previous segregation or “apartheid” policies, which came to an end in 1994, after uprisings and bombings of note.

The question will always remain: “Would they (the slavery) have done their killing bit if they were free and treated as equals?”