[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.The rebels had anunderstanding that their leaders would get a higher salary than the footsoldiers.While each private was supposed to get a dollar for each day,defeated rebels explained to their inquisitors that the paymaster, Henry,would get five dollars per day and Nat Turner would get ten.Even on thebottom of the pay scale, the lowliest foot soldier could dream of wealthand status far surpassing what was possible for a typical slave to accumu-late.When Isaac thought about joining the rebellion, he was extraordi-narily excited: if the revolt succeeded he would have as much money ashis master. 35 For him, money was not simply a way of getting goods; ratherit was a yardstick that could be used to make clear the equality of himselfand the man who had been his owner.Nothing was a more potent recruiting tool for Nat Turner s army thansome slaves desire for revenge.For a brief moment when Southamp-ton s social order was turned upside down by the rebellion blacks hada chance to redress some of the wrongs they had endured.For some, thenotion of revenge was directed against all whites.According to one wit-ness, Hardy commented that the negroes had been punished longenough and that the deaths of many white people was nothing andought to have been done long ago. While some, such as Hardy, lookedto avenge the wrongs committed by whites upon blacks in general, forothers revenge was something directed at specific people against whomthe rebels had specific grievances.Barry Newsom wanted revenge on Ben-jamin Edwards, who Newsom described as a damned Rascal. The de-scriptions of some deaths also suggest that some of those who were killedhad filled their attackers with particular venom.Mrs.William Williamsseems to have been particularly disliked by the rebels.Instead of sum-marily executing her, one of the insurgents brought her back: [A]ftershowing her the mangled body of her lifeless husband, she was told toget down and lay by his side, where she was shot dead. While no reasonwas given for Mrs.Williams s gruesome fate, one can readily understandThomas Barrow s death.Before the rebellion, Barrow refused to let anunnamed slave marry one of his slave women.During the rebellion, theslave took revenge by impaling Barrow upon a spit.36Other slaves drew their inspiration to join the rebellion from the rhet-oric of the Declaration of Independence.The first decision that Nelson,Henry, Hark, Sam, and Nat Turner the first five participants of the re- A Prophet in His Own Land 117bellion made together was to begin the war for African-American inde-pendence on the Fourth of July.37 On the same day that Americans acrossthe country gathered to hear readings of self-evident truths notably, That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creatorwith certain unalienable rights these men were going to hazard theirlives to make the Declaration s rights real.Nat Turner never testified asto which of the five collaborators first hit on the idea to begin their rev-olution on that day.Possibly, Turner himself was the moving force behindthe decision, although the passive voice, It was intended by us to beginthe work of death on the 4th July last, makes certain attributionimpossible.There are several reasons to think that Turner was not responsible forthe initial decision to begin on the Fourth of July.First, throughout TheConfessions, Turner described his actions clearly and specifically.Since hewas sure to hang at the gallows, he did little to hide his role in the plans.If he single-handedly decided to begin the rebellion on the Fourth of July,he would not have said that the decision was made by us. Second,Turner had thought about the rebellion for years before he enlisted hisfirst supporters.If he had it in mind to begin on the Fourth of July beforehe revealed his plans to anyone, why would he describe this decision astaking place after he had recruited Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam? Fi-nally, Turner lacked a personal commitment to this anniversary that wouldhave seemed unlikely had he been the one who selected it.When theFourth of July came, Turner worried so much that he fell sick, and thetime passed. A prophet, not a patriot, Turner looked for a sign fromGod, not a national holiday, to spur him to action.In contrast to hisqueasiness at the thought of beginning the rebellion on the Fourth ofJuly, Turner was intrepid once he received his sign.One week after re-ceiving that supernatural sign, an unusual appearance of the sun, Turnerand his small contingent began their historic rebellion.Given these threeclues, one surmises that it was Henry, Hark, Nelson, or Sam who under-stood and wanted to highlight the similarities between themselves and thefounding fathers and so first suggested beginning the war to end slaveryon Independence Day.38This implicit contrast in motivation between Nat Turner and otherswho joined the rebellion became clearer as the circle of insurrectionariesgrew.On Sunday afternoon, after their last supper together, Nat Turnerjoined his recruits: Jack, Will, and the first four men whom he had invitedto join the rebellion.For the first time in the six months since he hadtold anyone in the black community about his rebellion, Turner facedrecruits whom he had not personally selected. I saluted them on comingup, and asked Will how came he there? Will answered that his life wasworth no more than others, and his liberty [was] as dear to him. Withthose two reasons, Will explained that he was ready to die in the war forfreedom.Asked by Nat if he thought that in this rebellion he would win 118 communities and contextshis freedom, Will responded, He said he would, or loose [sic] his life. 39Will s testimony is interesting for what he did not say.He expressed nofealty to Nat Turner, his religion, or his vision.The promise of libertynot salvation led Will to join the rebellion.In not becoming a disciple of Turner, Will likely represented the ma-jority of recruits.No hint exists that any of the warriors in Nat Turner swar were his disciples.There is no indication that he baptized any blacks,even as we know he baptized himself and a white man.Once the rebellionhad begun, those who followed Turner appeared amazingly different fromtheir leader.While he abstained from alcohol, even his earliest, mosttrusted recruits indulged
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]