The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

First published: 1967

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Psychological realism

Time of plot: c. 1810-1831

Locale: Southampton County, Virginia

Principal characters

• Nat Turner, slave leader of an insurrection
• Samuel Turner, one of Nat’s owners
• Margaret Whitehead, white woman acquaintance of Nat
• Hark, a slave
• Thomas Gray, a lawyer
• Jeremiah Cobb, a judge
• Will, a runaway slave

The Story:

Nat Turner joins with at least sixty other slaves and free blacks to kill fifty-seven whites in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. Armed with guns, axes, and other weapons, Turner and his men aim to leave no whites alive. At least forty-six of the victims are women, children, or teenagers. After two days of violence, whites succeed in defeating Turner’s group in a battle. Turner initially evades capture but soon finds himself in the Southampton jail awaiting execution. A self-proclaimed preacher, Turner is unable to pray and feels abandoned by his God.

On November 1, 1831, an elderly white man by the name of Thomas Ruffin Gray enters Turner’s cell. Gray defended some of the insurgent slaves in court. He explains to Turner that Southampton whites simply cannot understand why their slaves revolted. Gray wants to publish a full confession by Turner that will tell the public the facts about the revolt. Gray’s concept of his job is to prove that Turner is not a typical slave but a fanatic whose revolt is an isolated event and therefore no threat to the institution of slavery. He tries to convince Turner that the major reason for his defeat is that most of the slaves defended their owners.

While Gray talks about the rebellion, Turner thinks back to his various owners, from Benjamin and Samuel Turner to Joseph Travis. The memory that dominates from the Travis years concerns Jeremiah Cobb, the man who eventually sentences Nat Turner to death. Cobb was impressed with the slave’s intelligence while listening to him explain that Hark, a fellow slave, was disoriented because of the sale of his wife and children. After the conversation with Cobb, Turner decided that Cobb would “be among the few spared the sword.” Turner’s memory shifts to Cobb’s voice in the courtroom warning him to stay awake. Gray, agreeing with the prosecution’s call for “swift retribution,” states in court that a slave rebellion is not likely to happen again because of “the basic weakness and inferiority, the moral deficiency of the Negro character.” It is a rationalization of slavery that the public wants to hear. During the trial, Turner thinks of Margaret Whitehead. Although she is the only person he kills, she was also one of the whites that he was close to. He recalls the day when she read her poem to him and told him that he was the only person at home whom she could confide in.

Turner’s reverie is interrupted by Cobb’s voice sentencing him to death by hanging. Back in jail after the trial, Gray arrives and attacks Christianity, saying that it accomplished nothing but “misery and suffering for untold generations.” Pondering Gray’s words, Turner has doubts about being called by God for his “divine mission.” The condemned man recalls trying to escape from his dilemma by thinking about his youth at Turner’s Mill. Turner learned to read by smuggling a book out of the Turner library. When Samuel Turner discovered his slave’s ability to read, he was delighted. It validated his belief that “slaves were capable of intellectual enlightenment.” While Samuel argued with his brother Benjamin over the potential of slaves, Turner became aware as never before that he was indeed a slave himself, a piece of property. The conservative Benjamin soon died. Nat became a pet of the family and was encouraged to read and to learn. Samuel Turner apprenticed him as a carpenter and eventually promoted Nat to a position of authority on the plantation. This led to the promise of emancipation at the age of twenty-five, a promise that was not kept when the plantation began to decline. Four slaves were sold. Although Turner had sexual fantasies of golden-haired white girls, his only sexual experience was an encounter with another slave, Willis. Samuel Turner eventually lost the plantation, and Turner became the property of the Reverend Alexander Eppes who, after unsuccessfully trying to rape Turner, relegated him to hard labor as the only slave in the village of Shiloh. Turner’s loneliness and frustration continued when he was sold to Thomas Moore. Moore’s response to Turner’s ability to read was to whip him.

The prisoner next contemplates his developing hatred, the obsession he has to kill all whites in Southampton County. During his almost ten-year tenure with Moore, Turner nursed his hatred and planned his insurrection. He became a preacher and the subjects of his sermons were black pride and the necessity of rebellion. He created objectives and recruited members of his army. The plan included the destruction of local farms and plantations, the killing of all whites, the conquest of the village of Jerusalem for the purpose of possessing its armory, and the establishment of headquarters in the Dismal Swamp. When Moore died, Turner became the property of Joseph Travis. Despite better living conditions, Turner remained determined to fulfill his mission. He convinced himself that he heard a mandate from God. Independence Day of 1831 was chosen as the beginning of the rebellion, but the plan was canceled when Will, a slave on a nearby plantation, assaulted his master and ran away, creating a general atmosphere of suspicion. Turner interrupts his reflection on the insurrection to recall an episode with Margaret. She sympathized with Will for attacking his cruel master. She wondered “why darkies stay the way they do.” Margaret asked Turner about a biblical passage that he identified as: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” Turner remembers his lust for her, but at the time, he converted it into hatred for the “godless white bitch” who was attempting to distract him from his mission of vengeance. Turner turns his thoughts to the Sunday night when the rebellion was launched with an attack on the Travis farm. When Turner was unable to kill Travis with the first blow, Will, the runaway who joined the rebel group, killed Travis and his wife. He taunted Turner for being a weak leader.

Gray intrudes into the prisoner’s reveries by asking if Turner feels any remorse. When Nat admits to none, Gray gives his analysis of the defeat of the insurrection, stressing the role played by the faithful retainers, the slaves who defended their masters. After Gray’s visit, Turner “was affected by fear and uneasiness.” Except for the slaying of Margaret, however, he knows that he did what was necessary. Turner’s memory returns to the conflict with Will during the beginning of the rebellion. To regain control, Turner killed Margaret. After the act, he circled the body aimlessly and envisioned Margaret rising from the blazing field. After recovering from the killing, Turner returned to the battle. At the Harris farm, Turner saw a white girl escape, but he made no attempt to stop her. Once the girl sounded the alarm, the insurrection was doomed. Turner let himself be doomed. Turner awakens in his cell on the morning of his execution. He speaks to Hark in the neighboring cell, but he can find no consolation for his despair, no sign of redemption. Gray appears and gives him a Bible, but Turner does not open it. He observes the morning star and thinks of Margaret. He remembers their discussion about “the perfect Christian love of God, and of one another.” He feels redeemed. As the executioner arrives, he hears a voice say, “Come, my son,” and he surrenders to the morning star.

Bibliography

Clarke, John Henrik, ed. The Second Crucifixion of Nat Turner. 2d ed. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1997. A new edition, with a new introduction by Clarke, of the book originally published in 1968 as William Styron’s Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond. Styron is charged with misrepresenting Turner’s life.

Cologne-Brookes, Gavin. The Novels of William Styron: From Harmony to History. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995. Examines the influence of the modernist movement on Styron’s novels, exploring his psychological themes and analyzing his shifting patterns of discourse.

Davis, Mary Kemp. Nat Turner Before the Bar of Judgment: Fictional Treatments of the Southampton Slave Insurrection. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999. Surveys four nineteenth century novels and two twentieth century novels about Nat Turner’s Rebellion, including Styron’s work.

Friedman, Melvin J., and Irving Malin, eds. William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner: A Critical Handbook. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1970. Contains background materials on the revolt, including the original confession of Turner as well as an autobiography of Styron and three interviews with Styron after the publication of his novel.

Hadaller, David. Gynicide: Women in the Novels of William Styron. Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996. Explores the treatment of women in Styron’s fiction, with special emphasis on his handling of women’s deaths and the meaning of these deaths. Styron’s depictions force readers to question a society that victimizes women.

Oates, Stephen B. The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion. New York: HarperCollins, 1990. This is the standard historical account of Nat Turner’s rebellion.

Ross, Daniel W., ed. The Critical Response to William Styron. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995. A collection of previously printed reviews and articles, as well as original essays, which chronologically trace the critical reception of Styron’s novels.

Stone, Albert E. The Return of Nat Turner: History, Literature, and Cultural Politics in Sixties America. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992. Focuses on Styron’s novel, the cultural landscape that produced it, and the cultural politics that engulfed it.

West, James L. W., III, ed. William Styron: A Life. New York: Random House, 1998. An essential biography about Styron that connects events in his life to his fiction.