The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents

by Greenberg, Kenneth S.

• ISBN13: 9780312112073
• ISBN10: 0312112076
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-02-15
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Careful study of the Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831 reveals much about master, slaves, and the relationship between them in the antebellum South. The central document in this volume Nat Turner's confession follwing the rebellion in Virginia is supported by newspaper articles, trial transcripts, and excerpts from the diary of Virginia governor John Floyd.

Author Biography

Kenneth S. Greenberg is chair of the history department at Suffolk University. His research focuses on slavery and the master class of the Old South. He is the author of Masters and Statesmen: The Political Culture of American Slavery (1985) and the forthcoming Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianisms, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting and Gambling in the Old South. Greenberg has been a fellow at the Charles Warren Center and a fellow in law and history at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Foreword	v	(2)
Preface	vii
INTRODUCTION The Confessions of Nat Turner: Text and Context	1	(36)
PART ONE The Document: The Confessions of Nat Turner	37	(22)
PART TWO Related Documents	59	(73)
1. The Richmond Compiler, August 24, 1831	61	(2)
2. The Constitutional Whig, August 29, 1831	63	(4)
3. The Richmond Enquirer, August 30, 1831	67	(2)
4. The Liberator, September 3, 1831	69	(3)
5. The Constitutional Whig, September 3, 1831	72	(5)
6. The Richmond Enquirer, September 20, 1831	77	(1)
7. The Constitutional Whig, September 26, 1831	78	(10)
8. The Norfolk Herald, November 4, 1831	88	(2)
9. The Norfolk Herald, November 14, 1831	90	(1)
10. Excerpts from the Court Records of Southampton County, 1831	91	(10)
11. Nat Turner's Trial Record, Excerpt from the Court Records of Southampton County, 1831	101	(2)
12. Excerpts from the Diary of Virginia Governor John Floyd, 1831-1832	103	(6)
13. Letter from Virginia Governor John Floyd to South Carolina Governor James Hamilton, Jr., November 19, 1831	109	(3)
14. Thomas R. Dew, "Abolition of Negro Slavery," September and December, 1832	112	(20)
APPENDICES	132	(12)
A Nat Turner Chronology	132	(6)
Questions for Consideration	138	(2)
Selected Bibliography	140	(4)
Index	144