The "Confessions" and Turner Folklore

The Need for Another Scholarly Reevaluation

By Rudolph Lewis

The most authentic account of Turner’s life is in The Confessions of Nat Turner, published in 1831 and edited by Thomas R. Gray, a poor Southampton slaveholder and lawyer. In his book on Turner’s holy war, F. Roy Johnson insinuated the existence of a closer relationship between Turner and Gray than appeared on the surface. According to Johnson, Turner’s insurgents bypassed Gray’s place in their "great work" (The Nat Turner Slave Insurrection, p. 95).

Despite the difference in estate, one might speculate that it was nevertheless a sympathy of souls. About the same age as Turner, Gray was disinherited by his father; abandoned, in a fashion, to fate. The theme of disinheritance runs throughout the "Confessions" and other accounts of Turner’s life; to such a degree, the act of disinheritance is indeed the primary spiritual motif of Turner’s testament. That is, one might argue, as is seen in numerous biblical tales from Cain to Esau, widespread social disinheritance fueled "insurrection."

Undoubtedly, Gray, like Turner, had his own criticisms of Cross Key’s patriarchal slavocracy, a society which bred both of them. Jointly, Turner and Gray exposed that which was unique and peculiar in their environment. As a result of his poverty, of his coming down in the world, Gray became a lawyer to make a living (Wood, pp.38-39). Gray foresaw that there would be a literary market for a religious "fanatic" such as Nat Turner, who combined in his person the volatile elements of race, religion, and violence.

In his comments on Turner’s "Confessions," nevertheless, Gray made clear he did not sympathize with Turner’s "great work" or his reasoning. For a Virginia slaveholder with a financial agenda, Gray, nevertheless, performed a great service to Turner, whose desire it was to leave an account of his life as a Christian slave. In his appended remarks on Turner, Gray, doubtless, had full faith in Nat Turner’s religious integrity and sincerity, defended and marveled at it. These qualities of Turner, indeed, both fascinated and horrified Gray.

Unlike Frederick Douglass’ 1845 Narrative, the "Confessions" contains few details of Turner’s familial life. Much of what we know of Turner’s personal life has been culled from folklore from both blacks and whites of Southampton and material made up whole cloth by those with political or ideological agendas. In his testament, for instance, Turner did not include the names of his mother, father, or grandmother.

Different from Douglass, Turner did not make use of his mother’s rape or those of other Christian slave women nor did he sentimentalize his grandmother’s abandonment in old age—all done in order to make abolitionist propaganda within the autobiographical form. Turner’s "Confessions" is silent on, stripped down of, all these mundane political issues. From a religious perspective, Turner was concerned about justice and Christian grace.

Aware of spatial and time limitations, Turner consciously economized and compacted his testimony by the literary use of biblical allusions and Christian symbolism. An audience reading Turner’s "Confessions" in 1930 or 1960 or 2000 is not like the one that might have read it in 1831. Turner’s jailhouse statements require today a skilled reader. One who knows something about the bible and biblical stories, someone who knows something about gospel faith. It might indeed need an audience that believes in God as people believed in God in 1831.

Turner’s testament is not truly a "confession," in the criminal or psychological sense of the term. This labeling was derived from Gray the lawyer. Turner’s jailhouse testimony precedes modern psychology in which one tells all. From Turner's perspective, his was not truly a confession. Turner’s primary interest was the divine and what God required of him. Technically, one may properly call it a testament, a gospel, or a witnessing of the Lord's work in the world

Turner restricted his "Confessions" to God’s work in his life, and only incidentally on family ties. To satisfy the appetite of his captors, Turner, however, did provide details of the killings and the course of the Rebellion. But even these specifics, graphic and bloody as they are, sustain Turner’s argument of God’s work in the world. For blood is also a motif in the "Confessions." It is a covenant. It is that which binds an agreement, an understanding. "It is the blood which witnesses to the Word and finally seals its testimony" (Coleman, p. 83).

This ancient ritual of commitment and marriage is not for the skittish, literary esthetes, the self-seeking. Because of his religious development, Turner became aware of, what Tillich called, "the paradoxical character of the divine activity" (Perspectives in 19^th & 20^th Century Theology, p. 133). In this sense, the "Confessions" is not only a witnessing of the divine in history, but also a theodicy, a justification of God for the spiritual  horrors of slavery and the ensuing "insurrection."

To construct a coherent view of Turner, both the "Confessions" and folklore are necessary. Undoubtedly well-thought out before his capture, the "Confessions," Turner's testament, must be the grounding of all that is said about Turner. In that few other written records exist, the extant folklore must conform to what Turner himself provided or implied in the "Confessions." If the tales do not, they must provide substantial footing to be considered true. Restricted by circumstances, time, and inclination, Turner’s narration yet represents his mind and motivation and his divine direction.

Though the "Confessions" may contain historical events, it, however, is not an autobiographical or historical narrative. As in the Bible, these elements only sustain its truth. Though Turner’s testament, at this stage, is certainly apocryphal; yet it aligns itself with canonical texts. The New Testament, especially the Gospel of Luke, seemed to have been extremely important to Turner, but also John's gospel and the letters of Paul..

Turner believed, as many today, the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New and the God of today will be the same God tomorrow. Though the veracity of Turner’s account of miracles has been dismissed without serious regard, the "Confessions," certainly from Turner’s perspective, is sacred history; transhistorical instances of God in the world, that can be likened to such spiritual testaments as the Book of Jeremiah or the Acts of the Apostles.

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update 28 June 2008