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Ep. 2 - The Confessions of Nat Turner · Confessions of Nat Turner, Insurrectionist

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  Chapter one to the public. The late insurrection in Southampton has greatly excited the
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  public mind and led to a thousand idol exaggerated in mischievous reports. It is
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  the first instance in our history of an open rebellion of the slaves, and
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  attended with such atrocious circumstances of cruelty and destruction as could not fail to leave
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  a deep impression not only upon the minds of the community where this fearful tragedy
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  was wrought, but throughout every portion of our country in which this population is
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  to be found. Public curiosity has been on the stretch to understand the origin
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  and progress of this dreadful conspiracy and the motives which influences its diabolical actors.
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  The insurgent slaves had all been destroyed or apprehended, tried, and executed,
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  with the exception of the leader, without revealing anything at all satisfactory as to
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  the motives which governed them or the means by which they expected to accomplish their
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  object. Everything connected with this sad affair was wrapped in mystery until Nat Turner,
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  the leader of this ferocious band, whose name has resounded throughout a widely
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  extended empire, was captured this great Bandit was taken by a single individual in
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  a cave near the residence of his late owner on Sunday, the thirtieth of
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  October, without attempting to make the slightest resistance, and on the following day
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  safely lodged in the jail of the County. His captor was Benjamin Phipps,
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  armed with a shotgun well charged. NAT's only weapon was a small light sword,
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  which he immediately surrendered and begged that his life might be spared. Since
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  his confinement, by permission of the jailer, I have had ready access to
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  him, and, finding that he was willing to make a full and free
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  confession of the origin, progress, and consummation of the insurrectory movements of the
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  slaves of which he was the contriver and head, I determined, for the
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  gratification of public curiosity to commit his statements to writing, and published them with
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  little or no variation from his own words. That this is a faithful record
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  of his confessions, the annexed certificate of the County Court of Southampton will attest.
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  They certainly bear one stamp of truth and sincerity. He makes no attempt
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  as all the other insurgents who were examined, did to sculpate himself, but
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  frankly acknowledges his full participation in all the guilt of the transaction. He was
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  not only the contriver of the conspiracy, but gave the first blow towards its
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  execution. It will thus appear that, whilst everything upon the surface of society
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  wore a calm and peaceful aspect, whilst not one note of preparation was heard
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  to warn the devoted inhabitants of woe and death, a gloomy fanatic was revolving
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  in the recesses of his own dark, bewildered and overwrought mind, schemes of
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  indiscriminate massacre to the whites, schemes too fearfully executed. As far as his
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  fiendish band proceeded in their desolating march, no cry for mercy penetrated their flinty
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  bosoms. No acts of remembered kindness made the least impression upon these remorseless murderers.
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  Men, women and children, from hoary age to helpless infancy were involved
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  in the same cruel fate. Never did a band of savages do their work
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  of death more unsparingly apprehension for their own personal safety seems to have been the
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  only principle of restraint in the whole course of their bloody proceedings. And it
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  is not the least remarkable feature in this horrid transaction that a band actuated by
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  such hellish purposes should have resisted so feebly when met by the Whites in arms.
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  Desperation alone, one would think might have led to greater efforts. More
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  than twenty of them attacked doctor Blunt's house on Tuesday morning a little before daybreak,
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  Defended by two men and three boys. They fled precipitately at the first
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  fire, and their future plans of mischief were entirely disconcerted and broken up.
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  Escaping fence, each individual sought his own safety, either in concealment or by
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  returning home with the hope that his participation might escape detection, and all were
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  shot down in the course of a few days, or captured and brought to
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  trial and punishment. Nat has survived all his followers, and the gallows will
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  speedily close his career. His own account of the conspiracy is submitted to the
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  public without comment. It reads an awful and it has hoped a useful lesson
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  as to the operations of a mind like his, endeavoring to grapple with things
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  beyond its reach, how at first became bewildered and confounded, and finally corrupted,
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  and led to the conception and perpetration of the most atrocious and heart rendering
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  deeds. It is calculated also to demonstrate the policy of our laws in restraint
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  of this class of our population, and to induce all those entrusted with their
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  execution, as well as our citizens generally, to see that they are strictly
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  and rigually enforced. Each particular community should look to its own safety, while
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  the general guardians of the law keep a watchful eye overall. If NAT's statements
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  can be relied on, the insurrection in this county was entirely local, and
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  his designs confided but to a few and those in his immediate vicinity. It
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  was not instigated by motives of revenge or sudden anger, but by the results
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  of long deliberation and a settled purpose of mind, the offspring of gloomy fanaticism,
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  acting upon materials but too well prepared for such impressions. It will be
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  long remembered in the annals of our country, and many a mother as she
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  presses her infant darling to her bosom, will shudder at the recollection of Nat
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  Turner and his band of ferocious miscreants, believing the following narrative, by removing
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  doubts and conjectures from the public mind which otherwise must have remained, would give
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  general satisfaction. It is respectfully submitted to the public by their obedient servant,
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  T. R. Gray, Jerusalem, Southampton, Virginia, November five,
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  eighteen thirty one. We, the undersigned members of the Court, convened at
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  Jerusalem on Saturday, the fifth day of November eighteen thirty one, for the
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  trial of Nat alias Nat Turner, a Negro slave late the property of Putnam
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  Moore, deceased, Do hereby certify that the confessions to Nat to Thomas R.
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  Gray was read to him in our presence, and that Nat acknowledged the
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  same to be full, free and voluntary, And that furthermore, when called
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  upon by the Presiding Magistrate of the Court to state if he had anything to
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  say why sentence of death should not be passed upon him, replied he had
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  nothing further than he had communicated with mister Gray, given under our hands and
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  seals at Jerusalem this fifth day of November eighteen thirty one, Jeremiah Cobb,
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  Thomas Pretlow, James W. Parker, car Bowers, Samuel B. Hines,
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  orris A. Brown, State of Virginia, south Campton County, to
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  wit, I, James Rachelle, Clerk of the County Court of Southampton,
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  in the State of Virginia, do hereby certify that Jeremiah Cobb, Thomas Pretlow,
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  James W. Parker, car Bowers, Samuel B. Hines, and
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  Orris A. Brown esquires are acting Justices of the Peace in and for the
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  county. Effort said, and we're members of the court which convened at Jerusalem
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  on Saturday, the fifth day of November eighteen thirty one, for the trial
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  of Nat Alias nat Turner, a Negro slave late the property of Putnam Moore,
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  deceased, who has tried and convicted as an insurgent in the late Insurrection
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  in the County of Southampton. Affort said, and that full faith and credit
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  are due and ought to be given to their acts of justices of the peace.
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  Effort said in testimony, whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused
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  the seal of the court after said to be affixed this fifth day of November
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  eighteen thirty one. James Rachelle C s c C. End of Chapter one