The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (1967)
In 1831 in a remote section of Virginia, Nat Turner led the bloodiest slave rebellion in America's history. It was one of only two significant slave rebellions in all of American history; a testament to the physical and psychological effectiveness of slavery as an institution. Historical data about Turner is sparse; much of what we know comes from the confession given to his attorney in preparation for trial. Gaps in the historical record provided the author, William Stryon, with considerable artistic freedom in writing Confessions, freedom which some members of black academia believe Styron crassly exploited (more on that later).
Confessions is told through the voice of Turner after the rebellion is quashed and he is imprisoned. In jail, awaiting trial, Turner is prodded by his attorney to provide insight into what could have unleashed such brutality. The rebellion spared no one; among the 50+ whites killed by Turner and his gang were infants and women; many decapitated. Though his execution was a forgone conclusion, Turner's attorney insisted that a full confession would help his case. Thus during weekly visits from his lawyer, Turner exposed more and more layers of his psyche and the events that shaped him. However, having existed in a time and place where duplicity toward whites was a matter of survival, Turner didn't tell his lawyer everything. Much of his story he kept to himself, reliving in his mind his life and the events that led him to his acts.
Compared to other slaves at the time, Turner's life was not exceptionally difficult or oppressive; but for a ten year stretch under a particularly crude and abusive owner, most of his life was spent under the domain of owners who recognized his exceptional talents and supported him. Literate and skilled as a carpenter, Turner was in some ways better off than some of the uneducated rural whites who lived in poverty around him. It wasn't any particular act of brutality that led Turner to his acts; Turner believed the rebellion was divinely inspired, that God spoke to him in dreams and visions. Of course maybe it was just indigestion.
As a preacher, Turner was trusted and respected by slaves in the region and used his standing to enlist 40 slaves for the cause. He carefully selected those he believed could kill without thought or emotion; slaves whose anger he could unleash. Turner wrongly believed that slaves he liberated would join the rebellion; his miscalculation was colossal. Instead of joining the rebellion, many slaves fought with their owners to repel Turner and his troops. The rebellion was suppressed within days. The fate of the rebels was sealed; the state executed the 50 or so slaves involved, citizens murdered another 200 - because they could. Instead of leading slaves to freedom; Turner's rebellion resulted in wrath and misery.
One of the most brilliant aspects of this novel is the duality of voices Styron gives Turner. On the one hand, Turner's voice and language for whites, full of the drawl, ignorance, and mannerisms that were expected of a slave and which Turner knew protected him from attention and suspicion. And on the other hand, the voice of a brilliant scholar of the bible and of human psychology who saw with clarity the destruction of his people all around him. That voice, Turner's true voice, is displayed to the reader through flashbacks and recollections but was rarely audiblized by Turner for obvious reasons.
As I mentioned above, when published in 1967, Confessions became a lightning rod for criticism from black academia. Let's not beat around the bush, among other things, Styron imagines a Turner who fantasies about sex with white women - (who doesn't love a snow bunny?) - and for some strange reason that didn't go over very well in the black community. I mean it's not like there's a history of demonizing black male sexuality as a threat to white female virginity ... Right . Many black academics saw Confessions as the perversion and cooptation of a black historical figure, a mis-representation of history and an all too typical pandering to stereotypes and white biases. Styron addresses some of the criticism in an addendum to the book in the 25th anniversary edition. For me, the criticism is the product of its era, I understand it, but I don't feel particularly bound by it.
I'm not one for ranking things; the best this, the greatest that, but this book is exceptional (one of Time Magazine's 100 greatest novels). Confessions is to me a perfect storm of subject matter and skilled writing, a psychological and literary tour de force. Styron was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1968.
In 1831 in a remote section of Virginia, Nat Turner led the bloodiest slave rebellion in America's history. It was one of only two significant slave rebellions in all of American history; a testament to the physical and psychological effectiveness of slavery as an institution. Historical data about Turner is sparse; much of what we know comes from the confession given to his attorney in preparation for trial. Gaps in the historical record provided the author, William Stryon, with considerable artistic freedom in writing Confessions, freedom which some members of black academia believe Styron crassly exploited (more on that later).
Confessions is told through the voice of Turner after the rebellion is quashed and he is imprisoned. In jail, awaiting trial, Turner is prodded by his attorney to provide insight into what could have unleashed such brutality. The rebellion spared no one; among the 50+ whites killed by Turner and his gang were infants and women; many decapitated. Though his execution was a forgone conclusion, Turner's attorney insisted that a full confession would help his case. Thus during weekly visits from his lawyer, Turner exposed more and more layers of his psyche and the events that shaped him. However, having existed in a time and place where duplicity toward whites was a matter of survival, Turner didn't tell his lawyer everything. Much of his story he kept to himself, reliving in his mind his life and the events that led him to his acts.
Compared to other slaves at the time, Turner's life was not exceptionally difficult or oppressive; but for a ten year stretch under a particularly crude and abusive owner, most of his life was spent under the domain of owners who recognized his exceptional talents and supported him. Literate and skilled as a carpenter, Turner was in some ways better off than some of the uneducated rural whites who lived in poverty around him. It wasn't any particular act of brutality that led Turner to his acts; Turner believed the rebellion was divinely inspired, that God spoke to him in dreams and visions. Of course maybe it was just indigestion.
As a preacher, Turner was trusted and respected by slaves in the region and used his standing to enlist 40 slaves for the cause. He carefully selected those he believed could kill without thought or emotion; slaves whose anger he could unleash. Turner wrongly believed that slaves he liberated would join the rebellion; his miscalculation was colossal. Instead of joining the rebellion, many slaves fought with their owners to repel Turner and his troops. The rebellion was suppressed within days. The fate of the rebels was sealed; the state executed the 50 or so slaves involved, citizens murdered another 200 - because they could. Instead of leading slaves to freedom; Turner's rebellion resulted in wrath and misery.
One of the most brilliant aspects of this novel is the duality of voices Styron gives Turner. On the one hand, Turner's voice and language for whites, full of the drawl, ignorance, and mannerisms that were expected of a slave and which Turner knew protected him from attention and suspicion. And on the other hand, the voice of a brilliant scholar of the bible and of human psychology who saw with clarity the destruction of his people all around him. That voice, Turner's true voice, is displayed to the reader through flashbacks and recollections but was rarely audiblized by Turner for obvious reasons.
As I mentioned above, when published in 1967, Confessions became a lightning rod for criticism from black academia. Let's not beat around the bush, among other things, Styron imagines a Turner who fantasies about sex with white women - (who doesn't love a snow bunny?) - and for some strange reason that didn't go over very well in the black community. I mean it's not like there's a history of demonizing black male sexuality as a threat to white female virginity ... Right . Many black academics saw Confessions as the perversion and cooptation of a black historical figure, a mis-representation of history and an all too typical pandering to stereotypes and white biases. Styron addresses some of the criticism in an addendum to the book in the 25th anniversary edition. For me, the criticism is the product of its era, I understand it, but I don't feel particularly bound by it.
I'm not one for ranking things; the best this, the greatest that, but this book is exceptional (one of Time Magazine's 100 greatest novels). Confessions is to me a perfect storm of subject matter and skilled writing, a psychological and literary tour de force. Styron was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1968.
"Miss Sarah was a fat, silly, sweet woman with a small intelligence but with an amplitude of good cheer ... and there was about her a plump unmean simplicity of nature that caused her, alone among the household, to treat me at times with what might pass, fleetingly, as genuine affection ... and I intend no sarcasm when I say that much later, when she became almost the very first victim of my retribution, I felt an honest wrench of regret at the sight of the blood gushing like a red sluiceway from her headless neck, and almost wished I had spared her such an ending."
"I do not believe that I had ever thought of the future; it is not in the mood of a Negro, once aware of the irrecoverable fact of his bondage, to dwell on the future at all ..."
"Beyond doubt Benjamin would never have been a cruel master, a nigger breaker. But if Benjamin's death brought no rejoicing among the Negroes, it would not be accurate to say that any were plunged into mourning. Even the dumbest slave shelling corn down in the most rundown and ramshackle cabin had gotten wind of at least the general drift of Marse Samuel's charitable notions and they all knew they had passed into more promising hands; so on the day of Benjamin's funeral, as the scores of humble darkies gathered with sorrowing downcast looks behind the big house and the more musically inclined lifted their voices in tender lament - "O my massah's gone! massh's gone! My massah's gone to heaven, my Lord! I can't stay behind" - the insincerity of their simple words was as plain as the difference between brass and gold."
"Hark was never (at least until I was able to bend him to my will) an obstreperous Negro, and for much of the time I knew him I lamented the fact that as with most young slaves brought up as field hands - ignorant, demoralized, cowed by overseers and black drivers, occasionally whipped - the plantation system had leached out of his great and noble body so much native courage, so much spirit and dignity, that he was left humble as a spaniel in the face of white man's presence and authority. Nonetheless he contained deep within him the smoldering fire of independence; certainly through my exhortations I was later able to fan it into a terrible blaze."
"I would go to a small, low ceilinged storage shed that was connected to the carpenter's shop by a door I could lock with a peg and thong. It was always a nameless white girl between whose legs I envisioned myself - a young girl with golden curls."
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