Nat Turner's Revolt Part 3 Backlash and Conspiracies

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gaskell, and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast and program. I didn't give you many names,
and joy a blunder. Look I'm reading I'm Not Divide

(00:24):
Rah A long struggle for freedom, It really is a revolution.
In Southampton County, Virginia in eighteen thirty one and Save,
Preacher Nat Turner believed that a recent solar eclipse in
February and the dimming of the afternoon sun in August

(00:47):
word seemed to turn blue were signs from God directed
towards him, signs ordering him to lead a savory vault
designed to end the institutional slavery as it existed in
the United States. Starting out with only a handful of others,
at midnight on the twenty first of August, he launched
a campaign aimed at doing just that. For at least
the first half of the twenty second of August, Nat

(01:07):
was largely successful, as he managed to grow a small
army from that initial handful to about eighty souls, with
whom he rated some fifteen farms and plantations, saying some
sixty slaveholding whites in the process, throughout which time they
faced little to no resistance as they gradually made their
way towards the county seat of Southampton, the town of Jerusalem,
where Nott believed there to be a supply of guns

(01:28):
and ammunition with which he could further outfit his growing army.
Round about mid day, only twenty second, though, his forces
had diverted somewhat from this course to conduct a raid
on the Parker Plantation, where some of his rebels had
friends or family members that they believed they could recruit.
It was here, though, that nat Turner's rebel army met
its first real opposition, in the form of a force
of white militiamen. These militiamen, however, were just as scared

(01:51):
of the rebellious slaves as they were of the white
militia men. As a result, when Nat Turner's forces rallied
and prepared to attack them, the militia men broke ran.
Unfortunately for the rebels, just as his first group away
militiamen were turning and running, another group arrived and attacked
the rebellious slaves as they were attempting to pursue them.
Where still Nat Turner and his men did not realize

(02:12):
that this was a separate force and just assumed that
these were the same men they had been fighting, so
instead of realizing they had broken one militia force and
could potentially break this group just as easily, they thought
they were facing one group that was far stronger and
more resilient than they actually were. Nat Turner's army then scattered,
running for their lives. In doing so, his force of
eighty would shrink down the twenty. Now, over the course

(02:34):
of the rest of the day, Nat would manage rebuild
his forces back up to forty, only to have a
case of mistaken identity the following morning lead to half
of his men scattering once again. As a result, with
just twenty men under his command, Nat Turner once again
delayed his planned attack on Jerusalem in the name of
rebuilding his army. Their first stop on this day, the
twenty third of August, would be Samuel Blood's plantation, where

(02:57):
there were some sixty odd slaves, twenty of whom at
the profile of the young men that were looking to recruit.
It is here then that we will resume our tale today,
but before we do so, first, like always, I want
to acknowledge my sources for this series, which are Stephen B. Oates,
the Fires of Jubilee, nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion, Patrick H.
Breens The Land shall be Deluged on Blood, a New

(03:19):
history of the nat Turner Revolt, and Kennis F. Greenberg's
nat Turner a Say Rebellion in History and Memory, And
like always, a full list of these and any other
sources that I used, will be available on this podcast,
KOFE and Blue Sky Pages plus for any who don't
feel like skipping through commercials. An ad free version of
this feat is available to subscribers at patreon dot com

(03:40):
slash Distorted History. And with all that being said, let's
begin as the rem will says, broke down the gate
leading to the Blood plantation and began their approach towards
the main house. Hark, one on nat Turner's original lieutenants
who had been with him from the very beginning, now
took the lead. As he walked ahead of the others,
Heark fired off the gun he was holding, doing so
with the purpose of seeing if he could provoke a

(04:01):
response to find out if the manor house was as
abandoned as it appeared to be. Looks, however, were deceiving,
as Hark's initial gunshot was indeed answered from within the
plantation house, as apparently six white men had gathered inside
it with the intention of defending the property. Notably, each
of these men were armed with a gun, and they
also importantly had enough discipline to only fire one at

(04:22):
a time, as that way, with each man taking their
turn to fire one at a time, they were providing
the others with time to reload. As a result, there
wouldn't be no massive law on their shooting, which would
allow the rebellious slaves to attack them, because by the
time the last man took a shot, the first man
had already finished reloading his weapon and was ready to
fire again. The whites were also surprisingly aided in this

(04:43):
defense in some former fashion, buying blunts owned enslaved. This happened,
according to Blunt at least because the previous day, when
he had first heard the news of the revolt, he
had called all his slaves together and given them the
choice they could either join him or they could join
the rebels, and they all apparently chose to be loyal
to him. In his retelling of this story, though the
slave Order withheld that he more than likely had informed

(05:04):
his enslaved that if they chose the rebels, it would
mean their death, likely at the end of a rope.
Faced with such firm resistance, Nat Turner's rebels ended up
pulling back from the house, yet not before one of
their own was killed and heart was severely wounded. Yet,
despite this decide eternal luck from their initial unchallenged success,
those who remained at Nat Turner's side remain just as

(05:25):
dedicated as ever and apparently still very much confident in
their eventual success, as according to one black man who
had encountered them that afternoon, the rebels had brought to
him all about their intentions to pay yet another visit
to the Blood plantation that night to get revenge for
that morning's losses. For the time being, though, they still
needed more recruits and they knew it so they handed

(05:45):
for knew it Harris's property, as it was one of
the largest plantations in the area. Yet again, though Nat
Turner's rebels found an armed force of white men awaiting
their arrival, and thus they were forced to retreat. As
they did, Nat seem to switch tactics, perhaps saysing that
with their recent said backs in their dwindling numbers, they
needed to add to their ranks as quickly as possible,
especially since as he had fled from the Harris plantation,

(06:07):
his forces had once again scattered, leaving him with very
few men. Nat then seemingly came to the conclusion that
it might be best to revisit the tactics they had
used at the beginning of the rebellion, namely splitting his
limited forces up to try and reach as many farms
and plantations as possible before these saveholders could catch up
to them. To then end, Nat would dispatch two of
his recruits, Stephen and Curtis, to the Allen and Newsom plantations,

(06:29):
as they were the largest and fourth largest plantations in
the region, so as to try and recruit as many
as possible from those fertile grounds. In doing so, he
was likely hoping that the fear and confusion his rebellion
had created among the white save holders would be enough
to delay and paralyze their response and allow him the
opportunity to split his forces in the name of rebuilding them.
Unfortunately for Nat, Turner and his dreams of ending Savory,

(06:52):
the two men he dispatched on his mission, rather than
finding recruits, instead took this opportunity to get drunk, at
which point the pair were captured by Waye forces. The
time then had seriously turned against Nat Turner and his rebellion. Indeed,
by the end of this the second day of his revolt,
Nat only had two others with him, as everyone else
had by this point scattered in different directions. Meanwhile, the

(07:14):
feared White response to this revolt was clearly at hand,
as these three would spend most of that afternoon evading
White patrols. When Knight finally fell in the twenty third
Neat dispatched his two remaining companions with orders to find
his four original co conspirators, Henry, Sam Nelson, and Hark.
These two remaining men were to tell his generals together
as many men as they could find, and meet him

(07:35):
back at Cabin Pond, where the rebellion had first begun.
Nat then was seemingly intent on hitting reset and starting
over from the very beginning, as he attempted to rally
together his original allies back where they had first started
their holy mission. Things had fallen apart and gotten a
bid out of control, but everything would be fine if
they simply started over from the very beginning. This apparently

(07:56):
wasn't some employ either. Nat actually seemed to believe that
this by his army being scattered and an increasing number
of white patrols moving about Southampton County, they could stone
pull this off. After all, they were just doing what
God had told them to do. So Nat would actually
go to capn Pond to await the arrival of his allies,
fully intent on reforming their army and once again resuming

(08:17):
their mission to bring holy justice to these slaveholders. As
that was waiting, the ones were busy reinforcing the defenses
at the Blood Plantation based upon what they had learned
from the two and saved men they had captured. These,
of course, being the two men who Nat had sent
off to find recruits at some of the largest plantations
in the area, only to instead get drunk and subsequently
be captured. These two men then told their captors that

(08:39):
the plan had been to grow their army, and then
attacked the Blood Plantation that night so as to avenge
the losses they had suffered earlier in the day. Ten
additional men then were sent to the plantation that joined
those already waiting for the rebels, which was a pointless effort,
as he planned again had involved recruiting more meant to
join their army before making such an attack, and the
two men they had captured had found in their mission

(08:59):
to douce. So meanwhile, I'm back at Cabin Pond, nat
Turner was waiting. He would wade through the night and
well into the following day, But still none of his
men arrived to join him so that they might begin
to rebellion anew, not even the men who had been
with him from the very beginning. Indeed, nat would see
no one anywhere near the pond until that afternoon when
some others did appear in the vicinity. These, however, were

(09:22):
not as allies or co conspirators. Instead, the only people
who came anywhere close to the Cabin Pond were members
of White patrols. Fearful and unsure of what this could mean,
that slipped off into the nearby swamplans to hide, only
emerging that night back on the now abandoned Travis farm,
from where he took some provisions before once again retreating
back into the woods. Nat Turner's rebellion then was done,

(09:45):
and now the time had come for the Weds to
reassert their control in the region. The initial response by

(10:35):
White save owners and nat Turner's slavery vote in Southampton
County had been highly disorganized. Indeed, they had been taken
completely by surprise, and were seemingly very much unprepared to
deal with such an uprising. They were so terrified of
the existence of any kind of save rebellion they were
nearly paralyzed. As they imagine ninety fours and maybe seven
or so enslaved, but an army consisting of all the

(10:55):
enslaved to Southampton. Morris still was to fear that it
wasn't just the enslaved in this his own county who
had risen up, but that they were instead a part
of an even larger rebellion there. For all the white
slaveholders knew could be taking place all across the southern
slaveholding states. As such, sea whites of Southampton and neighboring
areas feared that they were about to be wiped out
by an overwhelming force of enraged and violent slaves. As such,

(11:17):
the majority of the whites in these areas honkered down
in a handful of locations like Jerusalem in anticipation of
a last stand like scenario, not realizing that virtually any
of their small fighting forces were more often than not
more than enough to easily outnumber Nat Turner's rebels. Indeed,
had those gathered in defense of Jerusalem simply written out,
they could have easily crushed the Savory vault at any time,

(11:39):
but they had not done so because they were so
paralyzed with fear. With this we see that Nat had
seemingly correctly judged that there had been a moment in
time where, since he and his rebels had so effectively
terrified the whites of Southampton, they actually had something resembling
a chance of success, at least on a small scale.
This was because a slave uprising was a thing of
nightmares for any living in a holding society. It was

(12:01):
just a fact of life for those living in such
a society that they had to constantly live in fear
that one day the people they held in servitude against
their will might rise up and take violent retribution. Now,
whether they justified this as being the result of a
disease that caused or Saves to behave that way, or
because and Save were unreasonable and more animal like in nature,
as a way of not having to deal with the

(12:23):
troublesome question of whether their own behavior, in the very
fact they were enslaving other human beings might be the
cause of such a violence does not ultimately matter because
of factor remains that this was a constant fear with
which they lived. While the save revault in Haiti had
been the clearest rail world example of such an uprising,
there had also been numerous other examples of supposed savory

(12:44):
binds that had been stopped in the planning stages. I
covered one such event with a near conspiracy of seventeen
forty one, where after a series of fires in and
around the city, thirteen saved people were executed, seventeen of
whom being burned at the stake because they had been
accused of plotting a large scale revolt designed it overthrown
in a city with the help of foreign Catholic forces,
a plot that a heavily doubt ever existed in any way,

(13:06):
but the fear of such an evault was so agreed
thirty four people were executed for these imaginary crimes. A
similar scene would play out on Charleston in eighteen twenty five,
when a series of fires took place in the city
over a six month span, fires that the white residents
managed to convince themselves were being started by the enslaved
living in their midst. These fears eventually led to the

(13:27):
hanging of at least three black individuals who may or
may not have had anything to do with the fires
this all maybe there was some kind of plot, or
maybe it was all just any safeholders twisted little brains.
Is actually why backed off doing a series on Denmark
Vesei and the supposedly massive slavery bond he was organizing
as before going to all that reading, I just really
wanted to get a hit on where the current scholarship

(13:48):
stands on whether it is believed this was actually a
thing versus just the safeholders hearing something that confirmed their
fears and then running with it regardless, it seems that
Southern white starting in the eighteen twenties were more than
ever for terrified that the people they had enslaved might
be plotting revenge upon them. Now in the aftermath as
such a rebellion actually taking place, Whites all across the

(14:09):
South and in Southampton in particular, looked to not only
reassert but also fortify their control so as to ensure
nothing like this ever happened again. Meanwhile, as for the
enslaved of Southampton who had not participated in the rebellion.
They were left to wait with baited breath to see
how the whites were going to respond, Meaning would they
be measured and reasonable in their response, or were they

(14:29):
going to lash out wildly and vindictively in pure animal
fear by punishing all the insafe for what had happened.
Would they seem nat Turner's rebellion as a sort of
isolated incident by a few outliers, or would they conclude
that such violences took place in Southampton County was what
truly lay in the heart of all the enslaved. This
was especially complicated by the fact that during the course
of the rebellion and in its immediate aftermath, the whites

(14:52):
had no idea how large the rebel army was or
had been. For example, some rumors claimed that as many
as one hundred and fifty individuals took part of the revolt, which,
to be clear, wasn't no way accurate, But the whites
of the time did not know this and thus had
no clue which if any enslaved in the county could
be trusted, as they had not taken part in the revolt.
They for this reason also could not be sure whether

(15:14):
or not they had defeated and run off the entire
rebel army. Sure, they knew there had been clashes at
the Parker, Bunn, and Harris plantations, but they had no
idea if the rebel forces they managed to run off
and scatter in these battles had been the entireity of
the rebel army, or even a main part. They couldn't
even be sure if these same individuals had taken part
in all these clashes, or if they had all been
different groups. Indeed, for all they knew, these had just

(15:36):
been small fractions of the rebel forces. As such, for
a while, they had no idea of what more of
these groups were still at large. Indeed, the lack of
communication and the sheer fear that was generated by the
reality of an actual save vault taking place meant that
those just across the border in Murphysboro, North Carolina, remained
convinced for days after the rebellion actually ended there was

(15:57):
still an ongoing emergency. This is just some fundamental anecdote either,
as his fear resulted in the people Murphysboro executing a
safe who had just driven the woman who owned him
and her family to the town. As you see upon arriving,
the woman informed the people Murphysborough that she felt the
insavee man had quote behaved impotently on the trip there.
In their minds, then this ensaved man had to have

(16:19):
been in on the rebellion, despite the fact that had
this been the case, he wouldn't have driven the woman
and her family to the town, but instead would have
taken them to his fellow rebels to be killed. But again,
racism and fear are never companions with actual, intelligent or
logical thought. Chaos would also ran in Southampton County long
after the rebellion had been put down, because, as already illustrated,

(16:40):
no one at the time knew for sure if that
was the case or not. Indeed, for two whole days
after the revolt had actually ended, militia men, various volunteers,
and federal troops would continue to pour into the county,
all expecting to fight a rebel save army that no
longer existed. That being said, it's not like these forces
of white supremacy didn't have anything to do, as while

(17:00):
the quote unquote army of rebellious says had been dispersed,
many of those who had been a part of said
army and who had taken part in the bloodshed were
still at large. As such, a full scale manhunt was
on in southeastern Virginia as they searched high and low
for any who might have taken part in the rebellion.
Patrols of armed white men and howling dogs searched the
woods and swamps of Southampton for members of the rebel army.

(17:22):
Some then were captured and hauled back to Jerusalem. Others
opted to go down fighting as they fought against those
hunting them. After all, any who had participated in the
rebellion had known that their lives were forfeit should they fail.
Three rebels, for example, after scattering from Blood's plantation, had
fully intended to rally again under Natturner's leadership so that
they might finish the work they had begun. However, by

(17:44):
that point white patrols had begun pouring into Southampton, at
which point all hopes they had a reuniting with their
fellows died. As a result, these three ended up going
their own way as became an every man for himself situation,
with one of these three ultimately choosing to take his
own life rather than be captured. Meanwhile, one of nat
Turner's original co conspirators, Henry would be captured and decapitated

(18:06):
by a group of white volunteers, who then carried his
head throughout the county, showing off their trophy. This violence,
of course, was unlimited to just being used against the
rebels as their war. Reports of vigilanti patrols killing any
black individuals that they saw, including women and children, as
they low to avenge the actions of the rebels by
replicating their bloody deeds. For example, according to one story,

(18:27):
a group of whites out of Richmond rode down to
Southampton with the intentions of killing every n word in
the county. And indeed, according to this story, when this
group came across a free black man working his farm,
they paused to ask him if they were in Southampton.
When the black men responded that they had just entered
the county, the group proceeded to shoot him dead on
the spot. Now it is not entirely clear how true

(18:50):
this story was, but it does serve to illustrate something
that was true about the situation in Southampton, which was
the whites who made the trip to the county in
the wake of the rebellion were, if anything more evengeful
and violent in their actions than the locals. Take for example,
a cavalry company out of Murphy's Borough, North Carolina, who
reportedly slew some forty black individuals over the span of

(19:10):
two days, activities that included decapitating fifteen slaves and then
placing their heads on poles. Indeed, such beheadings and putting
heads on displays seemed to have been fairly common, as
such displays were meant to act as a warning to
any black person who saw them that this was the
cost of rebelling. There were numerous on the accounts of
similar happenings, including a mob blinching five blacks and cross

(19:31):
keys that being sat Astorian Patrick Breen believes that less
than forty slaves were killed in the aftermath of the evault,
a number that is much lower than many other estimates.
For example, Stephen Boates puts the number at one hundred
and twenty at a minimum. Now Brina's based as estimate
upon tax records, with the instead of appearing in such records,
as they were looked upon as being property that could

(19:53):
be taxed. As such, he took none of the difference
in the numbers before and after the revolt. In doing so,
he subtracted those who been captured a lot before being
put on trial, and also the sizeable number that he
believed had been sold off to more Southern states, as
was he trend at the time. He also subtracted a
number of individuals who were believed to have been freed
and colonized off to Libertalia. I do have to note, though,

(20:13):
that in doing these calculations, he is only looking at
the area where the rebellion took place. So while maybe
only fourteen slaves were killed in the Wigham Naturner's revolt
in Southampton County, that does not account for the others
who fell victim to the paranoia of lights in other regions. Really, though,
the most doutable thing about this somewhat surprisingly small number
is that it seems to show that during this period

(20:34):
Mooinites were less inclined to outright kill blacks than they
were in later years under Jim Crow. This was likely
because during this time blacks were seen as valuable property,
an unfortunate reality which had the side effect of protecting
them somewhat from being killed. Now, this of course, did
not spare them from suffering other brutalities but they were
spared from outright murder due to economic interest. Indeed, it

(20:56):
seems that Moore would have been killed had the wealthy
safeholders in the region not made sure to use the
militia to quote unquote rescue suspected rebels from angry crowns,
so that they could then be jailled, for example, at
the behest of wealthy slaveholders. General Richard Apps, a week
after the revault, issued an order that prohibited the killing
of slaves. In doing so, he promised that any who
violated this order would not be facing a jury of

(21:18):
their peers, a jury who more likely than not would
never charge a white man for killing a slave, and
especially not under these circumstances. Knowing this, then General Epps
declared that violators would be tried under the articles of Moore. Now,
the reason why such an order was given was because
by this point, thus in charge were confident that they
had reasserted their control over the region. The rebels had

(21:38):
been stopped, and the whites were back in complete control
of the situation. As the result, it was now time
to reassert the old order, which meant, at least in part,
preserving their wealth and their property, both of which were
embodied in the people they held and saved. The violence
of the white response was then tempered, in no small
part due to the rich slaveholders who assumed control of
the various militia groups roaming about the county, doing so

(22:00):
in no small part because they did not want to
lose any more of their valuable property that represented a
good portion of their wealth. Still, even if the killing
was somewhat limited, although violent acts were still committed against
the enslaved. For example, there are plenty of stories about
noses and ears being cut off, jaws being broken, and
hot irons being pressed into the flesh of the enslaved.

(22:21):
There were reportedly also stabbings, and there was talk of
flesh from cheeks being removed, all of which was done
either as a form of punishment, some kind of warning
against rebelling, or in an attempt to procure information through torture.
As by the end of the week, pretty much everyone
involved in the rebellion, with a few exceptions, had been
killed or locked up in Jerusalem small wooden gel which
was reportedly hot, rented and full of flies. Among those

(22:44):
captured and held here was Nat Turner's closest ally, Hark,
who had been severely wounded and left behind in the
chaos of the blood plantation. Others, meanwhile, had been found
hiding in the woods or under their master's home, while
still others surrendered voluntarily, fearing that the Whites would treat
them even worse if they did. Also among those who
had been captured was Hark's brother in law, Jack, who
had been forced to join the rebels. His protest of

(23:07):
his reluctance and his declaration that he had not taken
part in any of the killing and had in fact
run away from the others at the earliest opportunity still
did not help him much when he was found wearing
his former master's shoes and socks. Now, the main thing
the Whites wanted to know from those who they had
captured was why and how this had happened. To try
and get the answers to these questions, they toto torturing

(23:27):
the enslaved. This included cutting hamstrings and the aforementioned cutting
off of noses and ears, and the burning of flesh
with hot irons. Among those who were reportedly tortured during
this time was Nat Turner's wife, who was whipped until
she handed over some papers that reportedly included a list
of names that was probably an accounting of those who
they thought they could recruit. Others meanwhile, reportedly had their

(23:47):
feet literally held to the fire until they confessed everything
they knew, or, more accurately, they told the Whites what
they wanted to hear, as that's how torture works, although
in this case it does not seem that many actually
told the Whites what they wanted to hear, because what
they actually wanted to hear was some sort of elaborate
master plan that had been behind the revolt, and none
were able to really provide them with anything like that.

(24:09):
This was at least partially because as relatively limited as
the rebellion was, with less than one hundred participants, the
vast majority of those who joined the rebellion only did
so after it had begun, so whatever a larger plan
nat than the others might have had, most of the
rebels were unaware of it. Meanwhile, the Whites also wanted
the answer to the question of how this had happened,
and perhaps even more importantly, who was responsible, an answer

(24:32):
that likely only came to focus several days after the
revolt had been put down. Indeed, initially it was thought
that the captured Hark was the head of the rebellion. However,
through various forms of questioning that more than likely included torture,
the name nat Turner began to emerge as being the
man who was behind all the bloodshed, a revelation that
only brought on more questions like who was this Nat Turner?

(24:53):
And how had he organized this revolt? Of course, though
the most important question at the moment was where had
he gone? As nat Turner was not among those who
had been captured or killed. Indeed, while the initial attitude
had been one of confidence that there was no way
he could escape, as time passed and everyone else who
had been potentially involved in the rebellion was rounded up
and nat Turner remained at large, the situation increasingly became worrisome.

(25:39):
The hunt for the now infamous Nat Turner was not
an easy one. This was largely down to the fact
that many of those conducting these search didn't actually have
a clue as to what he looked like. Basically, the
whites were mainly just looking for a black man who
they thought appeared suspicious. As a result, you would have
random black men being arrested on suspicion of being Nat Turner, like,
for example, one black man who was a resident Baltimore

(26:01):
in September when he attempted to sell a horse for
a present, was considered to be suspicious. Indeed, it wouldn't
be in till Virginia's governor should a proclamation in September
offering a five hundred dollar reward for the capture of
Nat Turner, than an actual description of the man was
provided to the public at large. Before that point, most
didn't have any clue as to what the man would
have brought so much terror into their lives actually looked like.

(26:22):
It was with this proclamation that was sent to the Depress,
in which Virginia postmasters made available to their communities that
the public for the first time and any kind of
idea of what the terrible author of this destruction looked like.
According to this description, Nat Turner was quote between four
and forty five years old, five feet six or eight
inches high, weighs between one hundred and fifty and one

(26:43):
sixty rather bright complexion, but not a mulatto, broad sheltered,
large flat nose, march eyes, broad flat feet, rather not
need walk, brisk in active hair on top of head,
very thin, no beard except on the upper lip and
tip of chin. Meanwhile, this five hundred dollars reward was
not the only one on offer for nat Turner's capture. Indeed,

(27:03):
by this point there was some eleven hundred dollars on
offer for the man who was believed to have been
behind the bloody but ultimately failed save re vault in
Southampton County, Virginia. Meanwhile, even with nat Turner still on
the run, the Whites of Southampton County and of Virginia
at large press forward with their investigation of the rebellion
and with the process of legally punishing those involved. To

(27:24):
deal with the forty enslaved individuals who had been captured
in the aftermath of the revolt, the state called for
a court of oyer and terminae, a term that should
be familiar to any who listened to my series on
the Salem witch trials, and one that was based upon
a French term meaning to hear and determine. Such trials
were called for in this case because he saved a
no right to a jury trial. Instead, they were to

(27:44):
face and have their fates decided by a panel consisting
of five judges that were appointed by the governor and
his council. This particular kind of trial was also selected
because it effectively sped up the whole process by skipping
through procedures like the grand jury and even jury selection.
In this way, the men in charge of Virginia could
get things started in under way quickly so as to
appease the angry and vengeful public. As for the judges

(28:07):
who would be overseeing these proceedings, they were selected from
a pool of twenty candidates, all while from were safeholders,
and many of whom were particularly wealthy. Indeed, the three
men who appeared most often in these panels hailed from
plantations at average thirty nine slaves, a fact which made
them some of the wealthies individuals in the region. Meanwhile,
at least two of the judges involved had actively helped

(28:27):
to organize the armed response in Nat Turner's rebellion, which
you would think would be a conflict of interest if
anyone actually cared about such things. The thing was, the
men in charge of these proceedings very much wanted to
put on a good show of being fair and even handed,
so as to demonstrate to the rest of the country
how upstanding they were and how uncompromised. The safeholding system
was by demonstrating that even rebellious slaves received a fair trial.

(28:51):
Governor John Food was very much of the same mind.
Floyd Ucie had been born and raised in Jefferson County, Virginia.
He then went on to study medicine at the Uni
University of Pennsylvania before serving as a surgeon in the
military during the War of eighteen twelve. Upon being elected
governor in eighteen thirty, Floyd's primary goal seemed to be
reviving these states struggling economy through a series of government

(29:12):
funded eternal improvements like building canals, turnpikes, and railroads that
would connect these states various regions and coastal ports. Also
of note, Floyd was a strong supporter of South Carolina's
John C. Calhoun, who was the chief spokesperson an architect
of these states rights defense against the threat of Northern abolitionists. However,
despite this, Floyd had very much been in support of

(29:32):
the gradual abolition of slavery in Virginia. To be clear, though,
Floyd was still very much a white supremacist, as his
end goal was to have all the former and save
colonized someplace else. Thereby leaving Virginia pearly the home of
white people. Indeed, Floyd's opposition to slavery was not because
he thought it inhumde or something silly like that. Instead,
he opposed it because he sought as a wasteful economic system.

(29:55):
Governor Floyd's made concern now, though, was dealing with the
aftermath and Nat Turner's revolt, and in doing so he
wanted things handled very carefully, as he wanted to make
Virginia looko to the rest of the country with the common,
orderly manner in which they handled this situation. In doing so,
he also would be importantly upholding his powers as the
governor and that of the state by proving that such
issues need not be dealt with by vigilante and mob justice.

(30:19):
To that end, Floyd sent explicit orders to all involved,
and in carrying out these legal proceedings, they were to
follow the letter of the law precisely, and they were
to also keep detailed records of the proceedings which supported
this fact. The first aid and Save would then be
brought before the court, and as five judges on the
thirty first of August, defending these individuals were three court
opponted attorneys William C. Parker, Thomas R. Gray, and James French,

(30:41):
who would each be paid ten dollars for their efforts.
In doing so, these three men very much face being
ostracized by their appeers for daring to defend these rebellious
and murderous slaves. To be clear, though these men were
not radicals or abolitionists by any stretch. Indeed, all the
three hads done that at least Parker and Gray were safeholders.
The thing was if they light. The governor and other
prominent figures in the state felt it important that even

(31:04):
the enslaved should get a fair trial, or at least
the appearance of one. That being said, de Court was
under pressure from the public at large, who were still
very much in a state of rage and thirsted for blood.
As such, the general affear, given the attitude of the
white public at the time, was that should the justices
actually declare any of the saved before them innocent, they
risked the people of Jerusalem in Southampton forming a mob

(31:25):
so as to take justice into their own hands. Indeed,
throughout the trial there were reportedly angry crowds present on
these streets of Jerusalem who on at least one occasion
may clear their threat to break into the jail so
as to murder all forty accused saves who were held within. However,
even with the public clamoring for blood, there was still
the question of expense, as by their own laws, the

(31:46):
state of Virginia had to pay for any unsaved person
that they hanged. As such, each death sentence carried a
potentially heavy price for the state's budget. Yet, even with
such motivations like wanting to put on a good show
for the rest of the nation by demonstrating that safe
unders such good upstanding people they would even give rebellious
slaves a fair trial, and their desire to limit the
financial costs that came with executing slaves, there were still

(32:09):
a number of cases decided upon very flimsy evidence. For example,
three teenage boys no order than fifteen, who were, according
to all accounts, had been forced at gunpoint to join
the rebel army, and who were also actively put under
armed guard during the course of events, were still found
guilty of conspiracy and insurrection, a crime which carried a
sentence of death. Others, meanwhile, would be found guilty for

(32:31):
no other crimeman, saying they would have been willing to
help the rebels had they come to their farm slash plantation, which,
to be clear, means they had never actually done anything.
They had not attacked, much less killed anyone, but they
were still being sentenced to death. That being said, Governor
Floyd would intercede in a few instances, like, for example,
the three teens who had apparently been forced to join

(32:51):
the rebellion, instead of being executed, would have their sentences
reduced to transportation out of the United States. Meanwhile, even
with these questionable convictions, the judges were seemingly careful to
limit the impact of these trials, as at the end
of the day, they wanted to preserve the narrative to
the country at large and to their own people that
this had been a very limited insurrection. The narrative then

(33:12):
was revolt had been the act of only a few
and had been rejected by the vast majority of the enslaved.
As such, unlike the authorities involved in the New York
Conspiracy of seventeen forty one, they were not actively looking
to extract quote unquote confessions, then implicated others. If anything,
they wanted to minimize the size of this revolt, because
that way the public would be less likely to question

(33:33):
just how safe it was to continue having slay's period. Now.
What was probably the most notable of these trials would
happen on the third of September, as it was on
that day that nat Turner's three surviving original co conspirators,
Sam Hark and Nelson were brought before the court. All three, then, predictably,
were found guilty and sentenced to hang on the ninth
of September, along with several others who had been captured

(33:55):
after taking part of the rebellion. At this point then,
it seemed that only one person in involved in the
rebellion remained free, and it was surprisingly none other than
the mastermind and ringleader of the revolt, Nat Turner himself. Indeed,
he would stay on the running looting capture for two months,
during which time mrmis continued to swirl. Some would claim
that he had been captured, while others claimed that he

(34:15):
had been found dead, oftentimes in some distant city or state,
while yet another rumor asserted that the man responsible for
all the bloodshed had been seen with a Bible in
his hand walking toward Ohio, none of which were true,
of course. Indeed, Nat Turner was still in Southampton County.
As you see, he had spent the first six weeks
following the rebellion hiding in a dugout not far from

(34:37):
Cabin Pond, where the revolt had first started. He had
only left this hiding place at night so as to
get water and occasionally steal food from nearby farms, during
which time he attempted to overhear conversations as he hoped
to hear something about his fellow rebels, and especially his
original co conspirators. In doing so, though he dared not
try to make contact with anyone, Natuc was fully aware

(34:59):
that he was being hunt by every white person in
the county, if not every white person in the state
in the country at large. He could not even risk
making contact with other enslaved because there was no guarantee
that one of them wouldn't raise the alarm that nat
Turner had been seen. Indeed, one night in early October,
a pair of black men who were out haunting at
night with a dog happened to stumble across that as

(35:19):
he was out and about looking for food. The emaciated
figure wearing tattered rags and begged the two men not
to tell anyone what they had seen, yet, before Nad
could say anything else, the two men took off running.
It wasn't long after this encounter then, that the Whites
were alerted that the now infamous Nat Turner had not
in fact fled, but was still very much in Southampton County.

(35:40):
Fully anticipating that this would be the result of his
late night encounter, Nat abandoned what had been his hiding
place for the past forty one days as he fled
through the woods and the swamps, hoping as he did
so to elude these warmer Whites. You soon descended upon
the area with dreams of being the one to capture
the infamous fugitive and thus claim the reward for doing so.
As Nat ran, though he never really fled the area

(36:01):
around Kevin Pond. Basically, he just kind of did a
large circle around the area, but in doing so he
was able to elude pursuit. Indeed, on a couple of occasions,
he actually hate on the same farms as rebels had
attacked back in August. During this time, though, it became
increasingly clear to the preacher and former rebel leader that
he could not keep this up, as hunger, an exhaustion
word taking their toll. Finally, then Nat decided he was

(36:24):
going to turn himself into Nathaniel Francis, a man who
he had known in his childhood and thus an individual
who he hoped would not torture him, but instead simply
ensure that he was arrested. Nat then apparently waited for
Nathaniel to inspect the fodder stacks in his field, which
he finally did on the twenty seventh or twenty eighth
of October. The white slaveholder then was quite surprised when

(36:45):
the infamous Nat Turner stepped out from behind one of
the stacks, smiling, likely in an attempt to look reassuring
and non threatening. The problem was Net was still holding
a sword when he stepped out, so Nathaniel Francis responded
by letting LuSE a blasphemy shotgun he was carried. A
blast at knocked the hat off of Nat Turner's head,
but otherwise left the former rebel leader unharmed. Francis then

(37:07):
started frantically reloading his gun, a process that gave Nat
Turner just enough time to snatch up his hat and
run for his life. News of yet another setting of
the infamous Nat Turner spread quickly, and soon the area
was once again swarming with angry whites again, though Nat
managed to elude pursuit as he dug a hiding spot
for himself underneath a fallen tree, a spot which proved

(37:28):
to be quite effective, as a white patrol would pass
by that very spot on the thirtieth of October, completely
missing the man they were haunting. Then, once that felt
comfortable that the patrol was gone, he poked his head out,
apparently intending to further disguise his hiding spot. As he
did so, though he found he was not alone, as
a shotgun wielding white man named Benjamin Phipps was sitting nearby,

(37:48):
almost as if he was waiting for him. The thing was,
Phipps had not even been looking for Nat Turner. Instead,
he had simply been cutting through the woods on his
way to visit a neighboring farm when he happened to
stop for a few moments to rest, when all of
a sudden, the most wanted men in the States suddenly
appeared right in front of him. Nanan was caught, and
he knew it, as he couldn't very well duck back

(38:08):
into his hiding spot as he'd already been seen, and
there was no way he was going to be able
to run without being shot. So, with no choice left,
Nats rended himself to Phipps, who proceeded to tie his
hands behind his back. Phipps then started shouting and firing
his gun into the air triumphantly, acts which naturally caught
the attention of neighboring farmers and planters who came to
see for themselves what the disturbance was, only to find

(38:30):
that Phipps had captured the infamous Nat Turner. He was
now so gaunty looked more like a scarecrow than a human.
Nat was then paraded through the community, during which time
he made appointed, keeping his head held high, he would
keep his dignity regardless of the situation and would not
appear ashamed of his actions. As for the crowds of
people who came to see that the notorious rebel leader
had been captured, they were initially joyous that at Lass's

(38:53):
figure from their nightmares was finally in custody. Gradually, though,
this joy gave way to rage as the once joyful
crowd more and more began to resemble a lynch mob.
In this growing tumult, the men were guarding Nat gave
him a public whipping, perhaps giving into their own dark impulses,
or perhaps doing so to appease the crowd. Some month still,
despite all this transpiring around him, Nat held his head

(39:14):
high and refused to repent or beg forgiveness for his actions.
The following day, the thirty first of October, Nat Turner
was escorted to Jerusalem, during which time more people lined
the road to the town so that they too could
bear witness to the man they feared and hated. Being
led to the county seat, where yet another angry mob
witted filling the streets of the town. Still, though throughout
all of this, even as his guards had to force

(39:36):
a way through the crowd to bring the captured rebel
leader to the courthouse, Nat would not bow his head.
Once inside the courthouse, the officials therein interrogated nat Turner
for a period of two hours, during which time, while
he still talked about the various signs he believed he
had to receive from God that tol him to start
the rebellion, nat Turner fully claimed responsibility for the insurrection,

(39:57):
saying that it had been an idea that he had
been focused on for se several years. Indeed, when he
was questioned if he believed he had done anything wrong
by undertaking this rebellion, Nat Turder responded that he did not.
He was convinced he had not done anything wrong and
that the revolt had been the right thing to do.
In fact, he would declare that if he had the
opportunity to do it all over again, he would. When

(40:19):
they were done with his questioning, the white authorities more
or less concluded that Nat Turner was a delusional fanatic.
Now granted, he claim to have visions and had received
signs from God, but more than anything else, this was
what they had to tell themselves, because otherwise they would
have to face the fact that the cruelty inherent in
their own system effectively fostered this kind of violent response. Meanwhile,

(40:40):
Nat Turner was taken to the accounting jail in Jerusalem,
where he was reunited with several others who had taken
part in the rebellion and were now being home prisoners
awaiting trial. It was from these individuals that Nat learned
that his closest confidence and co conspirators had all been killed. Hark,
Nelson and Sam for example, had all been tried convicted
and hanged for their parts in the rebellion, much like
many others who had also participated, while Henry didn't even

(41:02):
make it that far, as instead of being brought to
Jerusalem to stand trial, he was beheaded by the whites
who had captured him. As for Nat Turner himself, his jailer,
after making sure the rebel leader was securely chained up,
had only one concern what happened to all the money
they had stolen from the whites they had killed, Which
was a ridiculous question, as Nat informed the jailer that

(41:23):
money had never been his objective. Indeed, according to Ned,
he had taken exactly seventy five cents over the course
of the rebellion. Meanwhile, as Natt was awaiting his trial,
a white lawyer named Thomas R. Gray would interview him
in several other suspected rebels, doing so because Gray and
many other white save holders in Southampton County and beyond
were struggling to process Nat Turner's revolt. As you see,

(41:44):
they simply could not conceive that their loyal saves would
ever rebel against them, and so they were searching for
a satisfactory answer to the cause of Nat Turner's rebellious acts.
In particular, Gray wanted Nat to give him a full
accounting and confession of his actions, believing that by doing
so he could help to put an end to the
panic rumors of further insurrections that swirled about Virginny and

(42:05):
North Carolina, rumors that regularly led to the daslor random
black individuals who had nothing at all to do with
Turner's rebellion. For his part, Nat would agree to speak
with Gray, doing so because he likely realized this would
be his last chance to tell his story in any
former fashion, and thus this was his last chance to
strike any kind of blow against the institution of slavery.

(42:26):
Thatt then, over the course of two days, related the
story of his life, the various signs he believed he
had been given, and the details of the insurrection. Then,
on the third day, Gray effectively undertook a cross examination
of sorts as he questioned Nat for specific details, while
searching for any deviations or discrepancies in between his earlier
recounting and his responses. Now eventually coming away convinced and

(42:47):
Nanta told him the truth as he understood it. The
white lawyer then went on to publish his interviews with
the rebel leader, titling them the Confessions of nat Turner.
Gray then, for his part, when all was said and done,
came away from this ex experirits apparently fairly impressed by
Nat Turner, even if he was till convinced that the
other men was a quote complete fonetic. Only fifth day

(43:08):
November eighteen thirty one, Nat Turner was formally charged with
quote conspiring to rebel and make insurrection. In response to
these charges, that pled not guilty because he did not
feel guilty. That being said, his representative in this trial,
one William C. Parker, who had been appointed by the
court as his defense attorney, would present no defense. Meanwhile,

(43:28):
to prove that nat Turner was the man behind the rebellion,
they called Levi Waller to the stand. Levi would then
testify to having witnessed the rebels killed several members of
his family and that Nat Turner appeared to be the
man leading them. The local postmaster was also called to testify,
as he had been one of the officials that had
questioned Net on the thirty first of October. The postmaster

(43:49):
then related to the court the details of this questioning
while the confession that had given to Gray and the
jailhouse was also read into the record with all the formalities.
Thus Lee followed. The judges declared net Turner guilty and
sentenced and to death by hanging. In doing so, they
sat nat Turner's value with three hundred and seventy five dollars,
an amount that the state would pay to the putnam
More estate for the loss of their property. Only eleventh

(44:12):
of September eighteen thirty one, Nat Turner was led by
the sheriff to the old narm tree that sat in
a field just outside of Jerusalem. It was here that
a sizable crowd gathered to witness the last breast of
the infamous rebel leader. When he was given a chance
to say any last words, nat refused the opportunity. Instead,
he simply told his executioners that he was ready. Nat
Turner then stood in resolute stillness as he news was

(44:34):
placed around his neck and his body was pulled up
into the trees branches. According to an eyewitness quote, not
a limb, noi muscle was observed to move. While Nat
Turner had refused to give the angry masses any kind
of a show or any indication of remorse before his death,
these safeholders still weren't done with them, as following his hanging,
nat Turner's bunny was given over to surgeons for dissection,

(44:56):
at which point, according to William Sidney Drury, quote they
skinned it made grease of the flesh. John Cromwell's meanwhile
claims that the body was quote skin to supply such
souvenirs as purses, adding that nat Turner's bones were also
quote divided as trophies to be handed on as heirlooms.
This auto destruction of the body was purposeful, as it

(45:16):
was yet another demonstration by the white safeholding system of
what happened to any who dared to rebelling against it.
In all, some fifty black individuals would stand trial for
the insurrection in Southampton, twenty one of whom would be hanged,
while ten others would have their sentences commuted and were
instead ordered to be transported out of the United States. Meanwhile,
a number of other trials would be held in the

(45:37):
surrounding Virginia and North Carolina counties, which would result in
an addition twenty to thirty more executions. Historian Stephen Boates
then puts the final death toll of the rebellion at
sixty whites and more than two hundred black individuals. Even this, though,
was not enough for some, as there was talk among
some Southern whites about the wholesale slaughter of the Inceda's
vegans for the rebellion. In ded reporter in Petersburg would

(46:00):
note that should another such rebellion take place, it would
result in the quote total extermination of their rais in
the southern country, essentially declaring that another save rebellion would
lead to the genocide of the Southern black population. However,
for the wealthy safeholders, such an outcome was just as
bad as a slave rebellion, as it would not be
able to maintain their wealthy status if all their slaves

(46:21):
were dead, especially since slaves were expensive and represented quite
a bit of their wealth. In fact, some slaveholders were
frustrated by the fact that some of their enslaved had
been killed during the course of the slave revolt. As such,
the state did not owe them money for their deaths,
unlike those executed after standing trial. With this, we again
see that pure greed was as much a part of
the system as racism was. Indeed, if anything, racism was

(46:45):
just the excuse they used to justify their greedy, inhumane actions.

(47:13):
Whites in Virginia all across the Southern States were stunned
by Nat Turner's rebellion and the sheer and violence of it.
While they had long feared a slave uprising, the fact
that one had actually occurred was still a shot to
the weird little fantasy world they had constructed for themselves,
a world where they, the noble safeholders, were simply beneficent
figures who took care of their simplistic slaves, who repaid

(47:33):
their kindness with their labor. For these slaveholders, theirs was
the ideal society. It was the way things were supposed
to be, and Virginia in particular was, in their minds,
one of the best examples of a slave society. It
was a place where these save masters were the kindest
and thus had the best relationship with the people they enslaved.
The slavery vold there, of all places, then, was like

(47:55):
a sop in the face for all these slaveholding states,
because if it could happen in Virginia, it could happen
anywhere that saves were held. Indeed, save voters were so
unnerved by these events at some places, like South Carolina,
actively attempted to stop news of the events in Southampton
from raging their area, doing so likely out of fear
that their own enslaved upon hearing of the rebellion, might

(48:15):
be inspired to revolt themselves. You can see how afraid
these people were through the rumors that persisted for weeks
following the end of Nat Turner's rebellion about other savory
vaults breaking out all across the Southern States. Some murmurs
even held that Native Americans in the region were assisting
in these rebellions, rumors that are not at all surprising
given that the Indian remove a line had just been

(48:36):
passed the previous year. Among the most panicked were residents
in North Carolina, as part of their state practically butted
up against Southampton County. Indeed, there was even one murmur
that a larger plot had been in the works, one
which had included their own enslaved. The thing was those
in Southampton had gotten the days mixed up, and God
started a week prematurely. Fearing then there was only a minorotomy,

(48:57):
for they faced their own, perhaps even larger scale save vault.
The residents on these northern North Carolina counties sent messengers
down to the state capital to beg for muskets and
ammunition to defend themselves. Then, at September, reports started coming
out of counties in southeastern North Carolina that a savory
bind was not only under way there, but that seventeen
whites had already been slain, none of which was true,

(49:17):
but still militia units rode off to these counties prepared
to confront get another uprising, while women and children and
neighboring counties responded by locking them saws in the churches
and banks as armed patrols rode through the streets. Even
when it became clear that nothing was happening, things did
not calm down. Instead, the whites lashed out at their
local black population. In particular, they tortured five black men

(49:38):
until they confessed that there had been a plan to
rise up and kill white men, women, and children. These
five men would then be tried, convicted, and then shot
for their crime. Yet even then, the white North Carolinians
weren't done, as it would also try and hang another
six black individuals for this non existent plot, while a
mob would lynch four more. Meanwhile, as North Carolina was

(49:59):
contending with phantom rebellions. Virginians were forming their own patrols
and vigilance committees. They would snatch up any black person
they need to be quote unquote suspicious. Students at the
University of Virginia, for example, would form their own unit,
while Richmond Streets during this time would be filled with
wagons loaded with muskets and other weapons. There were being
dispatched to places with the largest enslaved populations. The attitude

(50:21):
in the South that had shifted from one of confidence
and blis concerning their best of all societies, to one
of abject fear and terror. One South Carolinian, for example,
would exemplify this growing fear and unease as they noted, quote,
we may shut our eyes in a werner faces if
we please, but there it is the dark and growing
evil at our doors. Suddenly, more than ever before, white

(50:42):
Southerners were worrying about the large population of enslaved people
living among them. George Washington's niece was among those commenting
on the terror that are now confronted with. As she
would write, quote, it is like a smothered volcano. We
know not when or where the flames will burst forth,
but we know that death, and the most hard for
me threatens us. Some have died, others have become deranged

(51:03):
from apprehension since the Southampton affair. Meanwhile, a woman from
North Carolina would opine, quote, I view the condition of
the Southern States as one of the most uneneviable that
can be conceived. Now, lest you think this was some
progressively minded individual refacing the evil inherent in the system
of slavery, especially the former chattel slavery conducted in the

(51:23):
Southern United States, that's not at all what she was
talking about. Instead, are problem machine. Other white Southerners were
quote necessarily surrun by those whom we cannot permit ourselves
to feel confidence to know that unremitted vigilances are only safeguard,
and that sooner or later we or our descendants will
become the certain victims of a band of lawless wretches

(51:43):
who will deem murder an outrage just retribution, basically saying,
oh woe is me, I and all of my neighbors
can't sleep comfortably at night out of fear that the
people we enslave might one day rise up against us
for no other crime than in slaving them. Meanwhile, John Floyd,
Virginia governor, had been relatively level headed in the time
immediately following the rebellion, as he, despite the many panicked

(52:06):
reports that were coming in, realized that there wasn't a
large uprising under way involving save throughout Virginia, much less
among the Southern states as a whole. As time passed, though,
Governor Floyd became convinced that Nat Turner's revolt wasn't an
isolated incident. Instead, it was a part of a larger conspiracy,
and that the only reason why there had not been
a larger uprising at the time was due to this

(52:26):
larger conspiracy, a conspiracy that the governor was convinced was
organized by black preachers, quakers, free blacks, and abolitionists, a
who's who of outside agitators, because there was no way
that the enslaved would have revolted simply because they were
upset about being enslaved. Floyd even started keeping a special
faulder that he labeled freed Negroes and Slaves, in which
he kept all the quote unquote evidence that he gathered

(52:49):
illustrating this larger conspiracy. Now the governor wasn't alone in
these suspicions slash fears, as in general, Southern whites were
laying the blame for Nat Turner's bloody revolt at the
feat of Northern abolitionists. Southerners, you see, were convinced that
the wicked abolitionists were not only out to ruin their
way of life, but to end their lives period. In part,
this fear was inspired by the seeming rise and popularity

(53:12):
of the anti Savory movements in certain circles and northern states.
There were the Quakers, the various anti Savic groups that
were starting up, and there was even the first lilive
published newspaper in the US, the Anti Savory Freedom's Journal,
that all dared to speak out against the South's peculiar institution.
That being said, it has to be made clear than
abolitionists were a fringe movement, especially at this time, but

(53:33):
their very existence was enough to deeply unnerve Southerners. Indeed,
they would blame the abolitionists for putting dangerous ideas like
freedom and civil rights into the heads of the primitive
Enslaved among the various abolitionist publications that terrified Southern safeholders
was David Walker's appealed to the colored citizens of the world,
as it had purposely been sent to the Southern States

(53:54):
to be distributed by abolitionist agents. Now, David Walker was
an educated, free black man would study the Bible and
history books, and who also encouraged black militancy. In particular,
Walker called out the greed and racism that was the
backbone of the Savory system, while also calling for a
greater degree of solidarity among black people, most alarmingly, for
southern white seed or do the in saved, to rise

(54:15):
up and strike down their quote wull oppressers and murderers,
people who would quote Stalin our rites and kept us
ignorant of him in his divine worship. Indeed, in Walker's view,
why through the natural enemies of blacks due to their
greed and cruelty they had displayed towards them, writing that quote,
I would not give a pitch of stuff to be
married to any white person I ever saw on all

(54:36):
the days of my life. Walker would also, in his
writing seclaim that America was the land of hypocritical Christians.
In doing so, Walker was particularly dangerous because he was
using America's own founding beliefs against itself. As Walker was
making use of both brast and Christianity, which was the
most widely followed of religion in the country, as well
as the same natural philosophy that had been used to

(54:57):
justify the creation of the nation to now at the
country's safeholding nature as he called for black liberation. Equally
terrifying and supposedly responsible for the bludghet in Southampton was
William Lloyd Garrison, the publisher of the abolition's publication The Liberator,
in which Garrison declared that savery was a violation of
the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, not to mention

(55:18):
the imockery of Christianity. Indeed, in the very first issue
of The Liberator that had been published just eight months
before nat Turner's rebellion, Garrison had warned Southerners that savory
was going to end one day or another, and that
if they did not end it themselves, it would surely
end with quote storm and blood and fire. It was
his dire prediction that Southerners now claimed had inspired nat

(55:39):
Turner's actions, despite the fact that no evidence had ever
been found in these abolitionist publications ever being found anywhere
near Southampton County. Now Governor Floyd very much shared these
suspicions as he began filling his special evidence Falder with
copies of the Liberator and other abolitionists and black papers,
as he was convinced they proved that Nat Turner his

(56:00):
rebellion was just a part of a larger conspiracy. In
the governor's mind, you see, abolitionists, Northern evangelists, and Yankee
traders were all working together to sow the seeds of
this plot. According to Floyd, then it all started with
making the ensaved religious, which in turn made even white
women from respectable Virginia families a part of this plot,
because they had at times helped to teach the enslaved

(56:20):
to read so that they might read the Bible. Such acts,
the governor believed, were preparing the ground for a rebellion
because by doing so, the insade were given the idea
that God had made all men both free and equal. Then,
after laying this groundwork, the Northern agents would begin spreading
the idea that just as the American connists had been
right to rebel against the English crown, so too the
ensaved black's right to rebel against the slaveholders. For the governor,

(56:44):
then everyone from respectable white women to northern abolitionists, and
literally every black preacher easily blue rig Mountains was involved
in this grand plot, a plot that had not ended
with Nat Turners failed revolt. Instead, he was convinced that
a rebellion on a much larger scale was in the works. Now,
there are obviously many problems with this fantastical plot that
the Governor of Virginia wasn't envisioning, one of the main

(57:06):
ones being that abolitionists were actually quite clear in how
they intended to bring slavery to an end, and in
no way involved violence. Instead, they actually seem to believe
that by simply appealing to the conscience and humanity of
these safeholders, they would make them feel so guilty and
ashamed of their actions that they would repent and free
their slaves. William Lloyd Garrison, in particular, was all about

(57:27):
nonviolent resistance. Indeed, in response to Walker's appealed to the
colored citizens of the world, Garrison would write in his
Liberator quote, we do not preach rebellion, no but submission
and peace. Although he would note that quote if any
people were ever justified in throwing off the yog of
their tyrants, these saves are that people still for Garrison, quote,

(57:48):
the possibility of a bloody insurrection in the South fills
us with dismay. Additionally, the early abolitionist movement in general
very much tried to distance themselves from Nat Turner's rebellion.
For example, in the wake of the revolt, Garrison would write, quote,
I do not justify the slaves and the rebellion, yet
I do not condemn them. At the same time, though,
he would point out that the revolt was the exact

(58:10):
kind of thing abolitionists had long been warning their southern
neighbors was bound to happen, but each time they did,
they were ignored. Plus, and this can't be emphasized enough
that the abolitionist movement, especially at this point in time,
was nowhere near as popular or as organized as the
fear mongering southern slaveholders suggested. Indeed, many Northerner hadn't even
been aware the abolitionists in their newspapers like The Liberator

(58:32):
until after the Southerners started making a big stink about them,
not to mention the fact that oftentimes those Northerners who
were aware of the abolitionists didn't actually approve them, because
the northern states were just as much rooted in white
supremacy as the South was. As such, they also rejected
even the remotest suggestion of blacks were eagle to whites
in any way. Indeed, the only way many Northerner would

(58:53):
have supported the end of slavery would have been if
it included mass colonization, and I say, would have been
afraid that the former slaves might come and live when
their states or their communities. In fact, in contrast to
being the great antagonist who Southern safholders and their sensibilities,
Northern states were in general very supportive of their Southern
neighbors in the wake of Nat Turner's revolved. Indeed, the
New York Telegraph would write, quote the spirit of the

(59:15):
Times rebukes discord, disorder, and disunion for the Southern fire
brands and conspiracy theorists. However, none of this really mattered.
It simply did not matter how much of a minority
the abolitionists were, or how little attention other Northerners paid
to them. For these fire brands, the only thing that
mattered was the fact that these abolitionists existed at all. Indeed,

(59:36):
they could not understand why Northern authorities did not just
ignore the Constitution and its whole freedom of speech and
freedom of press thing and shut down the Liberator and
lack of its editor. For these fire brands, then the
fact that they failt to do these things was proof
that these northern authorities were just as involved in the
conspiracy as the rest. For many, then it was clear
the abolitionists, who by not being stopped had the support

(59:57):
of all the northern states, had, through their probably ganda,
implanted dangerous ideas into Southern slaves, ideas that had then
borne fruit in the form of nat Turner's bloody revolt.
From this moment onward, then, in many a Southerner's mind,
slave insurrections and abolitionists were permanently tied together, a connection
that would most assuredly have an impact on the course

(01:00:18):
of the country going forward by feeling tensions between the
two sections of the country. To be clear, though, this
blaming abolitionists for being the catalyst for the rebellion is
very much akin to the narrative the white safeholders spread
that all those who had followed Nat Turner had done
so because they were all deluded followers of a madman's
supposed visions. In that there were both excuses to blame

(01:00:39):
anything but the institutional savory for the revolt. In doing so,
they were also taking away the agency of those who
had participated in the rebellion. As a predominant narrative, especially
in the southern press, became either white Northern abolitionists were
to blame, or the participants in the rebellion had been
tricked by a false prophet, a false prophet who twisted
the Gospel of fit as needs in ways that were

(01:01:00):
totally unlike the way white save holders and their preachers
had attempted to edit the Bible to fit their goals.
Either way, was seemingly inconceivable that these men, based upon
their own life experiences as a slave, had decided of
their own free will to rise up in revolt. That
all being said, though, there were apparently some in Virginia
who had come to the conclusion that the only way

(01:01:21):
to be truly and permanently safe from a save rebellion
like the one that had just taken place was to
end slavery. Indeed, the people of Virginia were so disturbed
and terrified by these events that these states legislature actually
considered the question of emancipation as a number of people
were actually recommending a plan of gradual emancipation and colonization
all these states entire enslaved population, meaning that these staves would,

(01:01:44):
over the course of several years, be freedom then sent
someplace else, with one popular idea of being sending the
former enslaves back to Africa. Indeed, there were apparently a
number of petitions from the western portion of the state,
where there were few safeholders, that supported such a plan,
as even though they did not have a large and
save population, they were still very much afraid that an
army of angry cities that rose up in another part

(01:02:06):
of the state would not spare them from the apocalyptic
destruction that they were sure to want. Governor Floyd, meanwhile,
despite a spiraling down into the uralic conspiracy, also supported
this idea in part because he saw slavery as wasteful
and standing in the way the state's commercial growth, and
he also wanted Virginia to become a purely white paradise.
The governor, however, would not publicly support this call for

(01:02:29):
abolition and colonization, possibly because he knew it would fail.
Because a committee and the Virginia legislature that would be
considering this idea and what should be done in response.
In nat Turner's rebellion was very much controlled by pro
slavery conservatives, which, of course it was because he planners
from the state's tidewater region held much of the wealth
and power in the state. Such individuals, then, were obviously

(01:02:50):
against anything that might disrupt the system upon which their
wealth and power had been built. These conservative forces and
firmly recommended against even considering any type of immena patient,
a decision that Thomas Jefferson's nephew, Thomas Jefferson Randolph of
all people, very much rejected as the way he saw things,
savery was going to end some day, one way or another.

(01:03:11):
The only question in his mind was whether the legislature
would handle it and have control over how it was done,
or if it would happen as a result of acts
like the quote blood has scenes of Southampton and Saint Domingo,
a reference to the Haitian Revolution. This morning, however, like
all the rest, fell on deaf ears as Virginia's legislature
voted against gradual emancipation, in part because it decided that

(01:03:33):
the cost of colonizing all the currently in saved people
was simply too high. As such, they couldn't be emancipated
because it was certainly not going to allow so many
black individuals to continue to reside in the state if
they weren't slaves. So rather than emancipation and colonization, the
legislature passed more restrictive slave codes to try and ensure
the save would have no future opportunities to organize revolt

(01:03:55):
like nat Turner and his code conspirators had. Essentially, then,
they banned slave school religious meanings among the enslaved and
saved preachers. Basically, their conclusion was Nat Turner had proven
that giving the enslaved education and religion was simply too dangerous,
and thus it would not happen again. To further justify
these states decisions on these issues, Governor Floyd and funded

(01:04:15):
Thomas R. Drew, a professor at William and Mary College
and known advocate of slavery, to analyze and give his
opinion on the recent legislative debates on savory and abolition.
After doing so, do would write an essay on the
subject in which he asserted that savery was not as
evil as Jefferson and other members of the founding generation
had believed. Instead, it was to his belief that savory

(01:04:36):
was a necessary stage of human progress. Indeed, he concluded
that savery was a tool that was required to control negroes,
who he asserted were so inferior to whites there were
quote unquote not ready for freedom. As such, abolition was
totally out of the question. Meanwhile, other Southern save states
and response in Nat Turner's rebellion also passed her own
structor safe codes, doing so while also making a point

(01:04:59):
of expanding their militias and slave patrols, which served to
further militarize the Southern safeholding states. Then, due to their
fears of Northern abolitionists, these states also became more stringent
in their response to this perceived threat. For example, Southern
postmasters started seizing any piece of abolitionist literature sent through
the mail in their states. That being said, the external

(01:05:19):
threat of abolitionist was only part of the issue, as
in their minds, there were internal threats as well. As such,
they looked to drive out anyone within their own communities
who did not give full thread of support to the
South's peculiar institution. Teachers, for example, were removed from classrooms
for suspected abolitionist tendencies, while neighbors were ostracized for daring

(01:05:40):
to question the practice of slavery in any way justifying
such acts because they fear that even the mildest critique
could inspire a save rebellion. We really see that in
the wake of Naturn's revolt, the pro savory forces becoming
more strident than ever before, while also shifting their argument
from savery was a necessary evil to simply being a
positive good, or, as James H. Hammond of South Carolina

(01:06:02):
would declare, to be the quote greatest of all the
great blessings which a con providence has bestowed by choosing
this path? However, why Southerners were ignoring the advice of
Robert Dale Owen, as written his Free Inquirer, who warned
that should the South choose to quote suppress partial insurrections
by shooting and hanging, they may for a time intimidate
and check that reforming and revolutionizing spirit which has always

(01:06:24):
been extolled when successful. But a nodge of the world's
history and man's nature should teach them that there is
a point beyond which oppression cannot be endured, and they
ought to anticipate the horrors of the oppressor when that
day shall come. Meanwhile, amidst everything else happening in these
Southern states, there was also a growing sense of distrust
of the federal government. For example, Governor Floyd would question

(01:06:46):
in his diary why no federal law had been passed
to punished the likes of Garrison. Another quote northern conspirators,
who he believed had the quote express intention of inciting
the size and free Neiggers and this and the other
states to rebellion, And to one of the men, women
and children of those states, the problem was, as Flood
and others of his Elkolid quote, a man in the
states made pod treason in one state against another without

(01:07:09):
fear of punishment, whilst the suffering state has no right
to resist by provisions of the Federal Constitution. If this
is not checked, it must lead to the separation of
these states. The legacy of Nat Turner's rebellion, then, can
be seen in the South's preparations for the Civil War,
as they not only came to fear that Northerners would
attempt to outlaw and their peculiar institution, but they also

(01:07:32):
feared their influence causing a bloody Slavery Volt. Indeed, when
the question of succession came up for a vote in
Virginia three decades later, Southampton County support was unanimous, which
was particularly notable given the fractured political environment that otherwise
existed in that county, suggesting then that these scars from
their revaults still loom large in their minds. In doing so, however,

(01:07:53):
these Southerners very much signed the Death War and other
beloved system of slavery. Meanwhile, as the years and decades
upon decades have passed, Nat Turner has become a heroic
figure among black communities, as he is seen as a
black hero who led the first War against slavery and
who died a martyr for slave liberation. As such, while
nat Turner's revolt failed to end slavery in that moment,

(01:08:15):
he very much seems to have helped you set into
motion the events that would ultimately lead to the end
of that vile institution. And that, dear listener, is detail
of nat Turner's Slavery Volt. Thank you for listening, and
make sure to come back in two weeks as we
tackle some lighter subject matter as a deep dive into
the story about the war between Edward Drigger Cope and O. C.
Marsh a war that was a much about fossils as

(01:08:37):
it was about the egos of these two men. That, however,
for now, is a story for another time. Thank you
for listening to Distorted History. If you would like to
help out, please rate and review the podcasts and tell
your friends if you think they'll be interested. If you
would like ad for in early episodes, I set up

(01:08:58):
such a feed over at Patreon slash to Started History.
By paying ten bucks a month, you will gain access
to the special ad free feed available on Spotify or
likely through your podcast app as long as it uses
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to go to access that information regardless. Once again, thank

(01:09:20):
you for listening and until next time,

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