The Rebellious Slave

Nat Turner in American Memory

By Scot French

Over View

How did the bloodiest slave uprising in American history—once thought to have involved hundreds of conspirators, black and white, free and enslaved—come to be known simply as "Nat Turner's Rebellion"? And why does the enigmatic figure of the rebellious slave resonate so powerfully across American history?

In this richly detailed study spanning the eras of slavery, Jim Crow, and civil rights, Scot French places the contested history and enduring memory of Nat Turner’s Rebellion within the broader context of the black freedom struggle. French builds his narrative around close readings of historical texts, both famous and obscure, from early American prophecies of slave rebellion to William Styron's 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about Turner. 

He devotes considerable attention to the interplay between quasi-official narratives, such as "The Confessions of Nat Turner" by Thomas R. Gray, and less authoritative sources, such as rumor and oral tradition. Whereas most historians accept "The Confessions" as gospel, French presents several compelling counternarratives that point to a wider conspiracy. A groundbreaking work of American history, analogous to Merrill D. Peterson’s Abraham Lincoln in American Memory and Nell Painter’s Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol, The Rebellious Slave will alter our views of both slavery and its complex, ever-changing legacy.

“Nat Turner was neither the first nor the last American slave to rise in arms against his oppressors,” French writes. “Yet he stands alone in American culture as the epitome of the rebellious slave, a black man whose words and deeds challenged the white slaveholding South and awakened a slumbering nation. A maker of history in his own day, Turner has been made to serve the most pressing needs of every generation since. In remembering Nat Turner, Americans must boldly confront--or deftly evade, at their peril--the intertwined legacies of slavery and racism in a nation founded on revolutionary ideals of freedom and equality.”

Source: Houghton Mifflin (Spring 2004)  www.scotfrench.com

Scot French (b. May 29, 1959) is a native of Boylston, Massachusetts. He and his family live in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he teaches History and African American Studies at the University of Virginia.

He received his B.A. in American Literature and Magazine Journalism from Syracuse University, where he served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Orangestudent newspaper from 1979-80. After a brief stint as a freelance writer, he embarked on an eight-year career as a reporter, editor, and columnist for several New England newspapers -- the Peterborough, N.H.-based Monadnock Ledger; the Manchester, Conn.-based Herald and Journal-Inquirer, and the Concord (N.H.0 Monitor. 

During his years as an editor and reporter in New Hampshire, he covered three first-in-the-nation presidential primary campaigns (1980, 1984 and 1988) as well as the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster. He received several journalism awards, including one for depth reporting from the Society of professional Journalists/Sigma Delta Chi (SPJ/SDX) and one for editorial writing from the New England Press Association (NEPA).

French enrolled in the graduate history program at the University of Virginia in September 1988. There he studied under the direction of Waldo E. Martin Jr. (The Mind of Frederick Douglass) and later, as a doctoral candidate, with Edward L. Ayers (The Promise of The New South: Life After Reconstruction). In 1993, French and Ayers co-authored an article - "The Strange Career of Thomas Jefferson: Race and Slavery in American Memory, 1943-1993" - for a volume of essays (Jeffersonian Legacies, ed. Peter S. Onuf) marking the 250th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth. A one-year dissertation fellowship from the Southern History Program and a two-year predoctoral fellowship from The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at U.Va. provided French with crucial support during the research and writing of his doctoral dissertation. He received his Ph.D. from the Corcoran Department of History in May 2000.

French is an assistant professor and associate director of The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, where his teaching portfolio includes courses in Southern History, African American History, and African American Studies. He recently traveled to Havana, Cuba, as part of a Ford Foundation-funded program exploring the construction of racial identities in Africa and the Atlantic World.

French is married to Christine Madrid French, an architectural historian and preservation activist. Their first child, Gideon, was born in 2001.