Resistance: A Glance at Slave Rebellions

Call & Post; Cincinnati, Ohio › September 04, 2009

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Summary

"[Nat Turner] declared that 'indiscriminate slaughter was not their intention after they attained a foothold, and was resorted to in the first instance to strike terror and alarm.'" However, they spared a few homes "because Turner believed the poor white inhabitants 'thought no better of themselves than they did of negroes.'"

The rebellion was suppressed within 48 hours, but Turner eluded capture for months. On Oct. 30, he was discovered in a cave by a white farmer and then arrested. After his capture, his court appointed trial lawyer, Thomas Ruffin Gray, took it upon himself to publish The Confessions of Nat Turner, derived partly from research done while Turner was in hiding and partly from conversations with Turner before his trial. This document remains the primary window into Turner's mind. Because of its author's obvious bias, it is a subject of much contention among historians.

Historian [Stephen B. Oates] notes that Nat Turner had ordered his followers to "kill all the white people," including women and children. Approximately 60 white men, women and children were killed during Nat Turner's Rebellion; most were hacked to death with axes, stabbed, or bludgeoned. The largest number of casualties were children. In one instance, Turner and his insurgents stopped at the house of Levi Waller where they killed him, his wife, and children. Ten of the children were decapitated and their headless bodies piled in the front yard.

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Extract

Resistance: A Glance at Slave Rebellions

New York Slave Revolt (1712)

The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 was an uprising in New York City of 23 enslaved African Americans in which nine whites were shot, stabbed, or beaten to death and six other whites were injured.

Conditions in New York were ripe for rebellion. It was easier for slaves there to plan a conspiracy than it was for those on plantations. Enslaved blacks lived within close proximity of each other, makmg communicat...

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