Hello Everyone:
A glorious start to the new week. Blogger wishes to extend a big congratulations to the Royal Highness, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the birth of their son. Blogger is especially thrilled because the Duchess is a fellow L.A. Woman. Much love and happiness for the future. Onward.
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| Painting of Nat Turner's Rebellion theweeklychallenge.com |
The Nat Turner Rebellion was the largest slave revolt in American history. Nat Turner was a slave and minister, who believed that he was chosen by God to lead his people out of slavery. On August 21, 1831, he began an uprising by killing his owner Joseph Travis and his family. With a small group of followers, he set off across the countryside hoping to rally more slaves to his cause and plans to capture the county armory at Jerusalem, Virginia. The rebellion was crushed in a stand off at the armory and Nat Turner and his followers were captured and hanged. (history.com; date accessed May 6, 2019). The legacy of the rebellion lingers over the sandy soil and cypress swamps along the Virginia-North Carolina border but the physical traces are fading into oblivion.
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| Nat Turner's Insurrection Trail uploads.knightlab.com |
Norfolk State University historian Cassandra Newby-Alexander told The Washington Post, A lot of the sites that tell the story have been destroyed (washingtonpost.com; Apr. 30, 2019; date accessed May 6, 2019). Neglect and denial have tended to obliterate the presence if African Americans... as well as eliminating our history of slavery (Ibid).
History is Virginia's prime tourism engine. It is the essence of the state's identity. "Until recently, Virginia's celebration of its grand past glossed over the stain of slavery that marks every statute, parchment and Flemish bond facade" (Ibid). This situation is changing as the state commemorates the 400th anniversary of the first documented arrival of Africans brought to the English colony. Monticello, the home of the third President Thomas Jefferson, offers a detailed narrative of enslaved life. A museum will present an Civil War exhibition that will include perspectives of the enslaved in Richmond. However, around the state, the physical reminders of slavery remain undesignated.
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| Etchings of Lumpkin's Jail Richmond, Virginia virginiahumanities.org |
The landmarks are rapidly deteriorating and their significance resides in the memories and stories left behind. For example, Petersburg's 1854 Southside Depot is one of the few antebellum train stations in the South, where the enslaved were both workers and cargo. It remains empty.
Scholars are working quickly to identify slave cabins across the state before they disappear. In Richmond, civic leaders argue of the exact location of the notorious Lumpkin's Jail, where slaves were held and where the city's slave market--one of the most active in the region--without disturbing the upscale restaurant and condominiums around it.
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| Petersburg Southside Depot Richmond, Virginia richmond.com |
Justin Reid, the director of African American Programs for Virginia Humanities, told The Post,
What we choose to preserve is really a reflection of what we care about... When our cultural landscape is devoid of these site, we're sending the message that this history is less important, and the people connected to these sites are less important (Ibid).
Virginia Humanities is coordinating a statewide initiative to acknowledge slavery's legacy. That tension is acutely felt in Southampton County, along racial lines, where that history is associated with a particular pain. Depending on who you speak to or what you read, Nat Turner is either a villain or a hero in American history.
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| Birth of a Nation (2016) movie poster imdb.com |
The bloody events of Nat Turner's Rebellion and the history of what led up to it and what happened afterwards, have left the all-white Southampton County historical society in a quandary over how to handle the gruesome legacy. What is certain is over the past decade, interest surrounding the story has grown--in part thanks to Nate Parker's controversial but engrossing 2016 movie The Birth of a Nation. "Work is underway to establish slave-insurrection-history trails: a walking route in Courtland and a driving tour through through the southwest corner of the county where the rebellion took place" (Ibid). Most of the information resides with Rick Francis, a white county circuit court clerk, whose ancestors were either victims of or narrowly escaped the rebellion.
Mr. Francis took reporters for The Washington Post on tour of Nat Turner's Rebellion, beginning in Cross Keys, a blank looking crossroads with open farmland as far as the eye can see. "In the summer of 1831, some 1,400 white people gathered here, put out of the surrounding farms in fear of Turner and the armed rebels" (Ibid). Militias converged from around the state and North Carolina. When some of Nat Turner's men were arrested, they were held in a small cell in one of the buildings. The buildings are gone, not a single brick is left to mark the place.
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| Map of Nat Turner Rebellion Trail pinterest.com |
Over the course of the afternoon, driving around the remote parts of Southampton County near Boykins Village. Rick Francis recounts a story of terror, violence, and colorful family members. One of those family members was an enslaved man, Will Francis, the most fearsome killer in the Turner band. Will Francis was owned by one of Rick Francis's ancestors. He recounted to The Post reporters,
He trimmed my family tree...I mean that guy was a killing machine.
However, Rick Francis admits, while Nat Turner was religious fanatic, Will Francis was motivated solely by freedom (washingtonpost.com; Apr. 30, 2019).
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| Home of Rebecca Vaughan en.wikipedia.org |
The tree where Nat Turner was hanged fell but Rick Francis estimates the location to in the yard of an old foursquare house on Bride Street (Ibid). A short distance away from the site on High Street is the ditch where Nat Turner's decapitated torso was said to have been thrown. Mr. Francis attests that human remains have been found in the ditch (Ibid).
The county courthouse took down the Confederate flag in 2015, but a monument still remains on one side of the complex. In the records room, Mr. Francis maintains a tiny museum dedicated to the rebellion, exhibiting newspaper clippings and artifacts.
The biggest prize, Nat Turner's sword, is locked away in a courthouse storeroom in a padded case. Mr. Francis had to take a pistol with him when he went to retrieve it. The Southampton County Historical Society has resisted putting it on display. They are concerned that people will not take the tour is they see this most tangible and definable object presented front and center. Their uneasiness might be in presenting such a historically fraught object.
Nat Turner is also a complicated figure for African Americans who grew up in Southampton County. Bruce Turner told The Post reporters that the older members of his family spoke in hushed tones of a family connect to the Nat mess (Ibid). After years of research, Mr. Turner believes that Nat Turner was his three-time great grandfather. The more he learned about his ancestor, the prouder he was. Mr. Turner said,
I wasn't sure what he did was right or wrong,... Today I admire and honor Nat. I think what he did was correct. (Ibid)
Bruce Turner added that it was important to understand the rebellion through the lens of freedom fighters. The houses, the landscape of Southampton County all evoke that history now that he knows the full story. Mr. Turner said,
The houses that were down there... we used to call those haunted houses,.... And were told something terrible happened there. (Ibid)
The hanging tree still stood during Mr. Turner's childhood and the Vaughan house was left abandoned. He continued,
I was always told, oh you don't want to go in there, there's blood spattered up on the walls, and stuff like that. I went in there. I only saw some spots. But they could've been mold,... (Ibid)
Why preserve the sites where the largest slave rebellion in American history took place? The answer is historic preservation is not always about the places of happy and victorious moments. Preservation of the dark places contributes to a fuller understanding of history, allowing us to confront the past deeds, learn from them, and move forward into a better future.
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