Slave Women’s Participation in Slave Revolts, Essay Example

Nat Turner’s revolt is one of the most tragic and controversial events in the American history. The massacre during the plot and the bloody aftermath is terrifying our imagination. Quite obviously, this event has attracted a lot of attention from the historians, writers and journalists. The most famous book featuring the events of 1831 is the “Confessions of Nat Turner” by William Styron – a Pulitzer-winning novel that has become rather notorious, due to the specific way that the author presents Turner’s motives. The book is initially based on the original confession, that Turner has himself dictated to the white lawyer in the Jerusalem jail. This fact makes the novel semi-historical, basing on the real document, but interpreting it in a very special way. The role of slave women in the slave revolts is indeed very interesting to discuss, as it may present the slave movement a new, unusual manner. This topic however is not broadly mentioned in William Styron’s novel and is not present in the original confession at all.

Before actually describing the potential role of the black women in the revolt, we should first examine the conditions in which the slaves were forced to exist and the ways that their attitude towards the white people was influenced. The beginning of the 19th century was the hard time for the Afro-American. Slavery was present on all of the US territory, but was especially ugly in the southern states. Black people were abused and neglected, exploited and disrespected. In fact, the life of a black person was about equal to the life of a domestic animal. Slaves were forced to work in hard conditions, receiving no money – just food and miserable shelters. Total humiliation of the entire race was considered a norm.

Surprisingly, Afro-Americans tolerated such terrible attitude for rather long. Both males and females took the approach for granted and did little to resist the pressure. For decades, no great insurrections happened, just the minor opposition to the regime. In fact, Nat Turner’s revolt was the first and the only serious confrontation with the slave-owners. As indicated in Turner’s real confessions, no black women ever participated in the bloody massacre of his revolt. Historical evidence proves the same – slave women took no active part in combat and disobeyed their owners extremely rarely.

Black women were in saddening conditions – they were used as a free workforce just as the males, were frequently raped by their owners and even killed. In fact, the murder of the slave was not even a serious crime. Theoretically it was prohibited, but no real punishment usually followed. Slave women stoically took all the complications and humiliations; they even developed strong affection towards their masters and usually remained loyal. Slave females became great nannies and wet-nurses for the white children. Sometimes, white slave-owners even took Afro-American women as their wives or official lovers. This has actually created quite a lot of complications, as these women were in a very dubious status – they could not be full-fledged wives as well as were not considered slaves any more. (Li, 2006) As a result, they were not taken seriously by the white people and could not enter the black community any more, as they were considered traitors.

After the discussion above, one may think that the black women did not participate in the liberation movement at all. This is not exactly right, as fighting for freedom does not necessarily take the form of the severe massacre performed by Nat Turner. After all, peaceful life under such stress and oppression is heroic by itself. I think that one of the main and the most terrible results of slavery is the damage to the people’s minds and almost entire destruction of humanism. Nat Turner’s revolt shows devastating degradation of the morale on the both sides of the conflict. At first, the reader of “Confession of Nat Turner” pictures the shocking scenes of the slaves slaughtering the white families, including women and children. Later slave-owners take the same actions, murdering most of the rebels and simply executing the rest. Further revenge of the slave-owners is also worth mentioning – the aftermath is in no way more civilized than the rebellion itself. Historians claim that in the weeks following the insurrection, over 200 black people were murdered. The period of slavery has twisted the normal views of moral in the south. Both white and black people engaged in the activities that are in no way acceptable for the human beings.

The fact that Nat Turner does not mention black women actively participating in the bloody revolt and that William Styron does not stress this point either, leaves the reader with hope that the degradation is not hopeless. (Clark, 2000) Slave females try to preserve the main values of all the mankind. Striving to create and protect the family even under the severe oppression takes real courage, perhaps even greater than the simple revolt.

To sum up, I would like to say that the role of slave women in the revolts is hard to measure as no females took real part in the two days of Nat Turner’s fighting. Their role is much greater in everyday life, with gradual passive resistance, which eventually significantly contributed to the liberation movement.

Works Cited

Clark, John. The Second Crucifixion of Nat Turner  Black Classic Press, Baltimore, 1988

Li, Stephanie. Motherhood as Resistance in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. A Journal of American Women Writers, Vol. 23, 2006

Gray, Thomas R. The Confessions of Nat Turner, The Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southhampton, VA. Lucas and Deaver, Baltimore 1831, accessed March 13, 2008 at: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/turner/turner.html