The Confessions of Nat Turner
with Related DocumentsSecond Edition ©2017
Twenty years after the publication of the first edition of this volume, Nat Turner and the rebels of 1831 remain central figures in American culture. Kenneth S. Greenberg’s revised introduction updates the role of Nat Turner in American memory and also includes the latest scholarship on topics such
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Twenty years after the publication of the first edition of this volume, Nat Turner and the rebels of 1831 remain central figures in American culture. Kenneth S. Greenberg’s revised introduction updates the role of Nat Turner in American memory and also includes the latest scholarship on topics such as the importance of neighborhoods to the community of enslaved people and the role of women in resisting enslavement. New to this edition is a significant excerpt from David Walker’s 1830 Appeal – a radical attack on slavery from a Boston based African American intellectual that circulated near the area of the rebellion and echoed key themes of The Confessions of Nat Turner. The Appeal will compel students to ponder the question of Turner’s connection to a larger African American liberation movement. This volume’s appendixes offer an updated Chronology, Questions for Consideration, and Selected Bibliography, tools that will serve to facilitate the use of this book in the classroom.
“This is an unusualy fine selection of documents, supplemented by judicious editorial commentary. It should prove invaluable for students at all levels and of considerable use to specialists as well.” –Eugene D. Genovese, University of Georgia
"Professor Greenberg has provided a polished and fascinating treatment of the topic…. Most praiseworthy is the way in which he deals with issues of evidence and interpretation in a very sophisticated yet fundamental way to make the whole question of documents and their uses a provocative adventure for the student/reader." –Catherine Clinton, The W.E.B. Dubois Institute, Harvard University
Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
PART ONE:
Introduction: The Confessions of Nat Turner: Text and Context
Nat Turner: The Man and the Rebellion
The Setting
The Text
Slave Rebellions and Resistance
The Aftermath of the Rebellion
The Virginia Debate over Emancipation
Retelling the Story
PART TWO: The Confessions of Nat Turner
PART THREE: Related Documents
1. The Richmond Compiler, August 24, 1831
2. The Constitutional Whig, August 29, 1831
3. The Richmond Enquirer, August 30, 1831
4. The Liberator, September 3, 1831
5. The Constitutional Whig, September 3, 1831
6. The Richmond Enquirer, September 20, 1831
7. The Constitutional Whig, September 26, 1831
8. The Norfolk Herald, November 4, 1831
9. The Norfolk Herald, November 14, 1831
10. Excerpts from the Court Records of Southampton County, 1831
11. Nat Turners Trial Record, Excerpt from the Court Records of Southampton County, 1831
12. Excerpts from the Diary of Virginia Governor John Floyd, 1831-1832
13. Letter from Virginia Governor John Floyd to South Carolina Governor James Hamilton, Jr., November 19, 1831
14. Thomas R. Dew, Abolition of Negro Slavery, September and December, 1832
15. David Walker, Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, 1830
APPENDIXES
A Nat Turner Chronology (1800-1832)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index
Authors
Kenneth S. Greenberg
Kenneth S. Greenberg is Distinguished Professor of History at Suffolk University.  He is the author of Masters and Statesmen: The Political Culture of American Slavery and Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting and Gambling in the Old South.  He is co-writer and co-producer of the film Nat Turner:  A Troublesome Property, nationally broadcast on PBS.  He has also been awarded fellowships by the Charles Warren Center at Harvard, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and Harvard Law School.
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