LITERATURE: The Confessions of Nat Turner – Some Initial Thoughts

The reading here is much more welcoming in that the language is beautifully wrought. There is some question in my mind–knowing that this book is considered historical fiction based upon the actual written confessions of Mr. Turner, as to that language. Whether it be as author William Styron suggests or whether I should resort to looking up the confessions and see if the language is what Mr. Turner would use. While risking (again) being labeled a racist here, it would seem obvious that the language Styron uses in the voice of Nat Turner seems extremely formal for a Negro of that period, it is also fact that since he was self-educated and a voracious reader of the Bible, that he might indeed be a man of eloquence as even the most common of men of that period likely speak in a much more formal and correct manner than many of today’s society.

There is something that surprises me even more in this novel, and that is the intimation that Nat Turner was not driven to rebellion by the oppression of slavery as much as seeing it as a divine command by God.

“Near the end of my trapline there was a little knoll, surrounded on three sides by a thicket of scrub oak trees, and here I would make my breakfast. From this knoll (though hardly taller than a small tree, it was the highest point of land for miles) I could obtain a clear and secret view of the countryside, including several of the farmhouses which it had already become my purpose eventually to invade and pillage.

(…) For at such times it seemed that the spirit of God hovered very close to me, advising me in this fashion: Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord: Say, a sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished: it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter.”

This sort of changes the reading for me. For while I was completely prepared for the concept of an uprising in the name of justice I can’t help being influenced by the not quite as comprehensible fanaticism that claims bloodshed in the name of religion a.k.a. terrorism today.

History has indeed proven that so many lives and civilizations have been devastated in the mistaken belief that it is being done in accordance with God’s will. I would more closely be in agreement with war for the sake of obvious repression and injustice, then in the claim of misunderstood Biblical references.

(ADDENDUM: Oddly enough, within an hour after posting this I read this report on Democratic Senator Reid’s comments regarding President Obama during the presidential campaign. It’s just so hard to be honestly interested and yet pc these days.)