ARGUMENTS
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liam S. Drewry, an unabashed apologist for the "benign" institution.
Styron does not appear to have considered two earlier accounts, one in
1867 by William Wells Brown, a black historian, or that of Thomas
Wentworth Higginson, a white abolitionist, whose account appeared in
the
Atlantic Monthly
in 1869.)
However, despite Drewry's clear conviction - repeated again and
again - that Virginia's slaves were "faithful and affectionate" and rep–
resented "the happiest laboring class in the world," he reveals much
that contradicts his basic position. While triumphantly citing cases of
slaves hiding or protecting their masters, he is baffled by the fact that
most slaves apparently knew of the planned uprising yet failed to
denounce it. Though insisting that Turner was motivated by a "hideous
fanaticism" and that his followers were "weak, misguided and ungrate–
ful," Drewry never denies the political basis of the rebellion, which he
attributes to abolitionist agitation and the blacks' knowledge of the
Haitian revolution, refugees from which were in the county. Another
factor, according to Drewry, was the presence of 1,745 free blacks in
a county with a slave population of 7,756. These freemen were "pros–
perous, many owned land" and their presence "encouraged the slaves to
the possibility of freedom." Drewry notes that "news travelled among
the slaves rapidly and mysteriously," as it did among "natives of the
Congo." He believes that the insurrection plot extended to neighboring
counties and into North Carolina. (In his jail cell, Turner denied all im–
plication in the North Carolina plot.)
Drewry's comments on Turner's personal history are instructive.
Turner's education he attributes to his master, "assisted by his parents
who were intelligent Negroes." Nancy, Nat's mother, came "direct from
Africa" and was "so wild" that she had to be tied to prevent her mur–
dering Nat at birth. (Infanticide committed by African-born mothers
who preferred to see their children dead rather than slaves seems to
have been frequent.) His father, described as "highspirited," ran away
when Nat was a boy and was never recaptured.
Nat was a youthful strategist and leader of stealing expeditions. But
Drewry attributes Nat's importance in the slave community mainly to
his charlatanry, reporting that "he spat blood at will" having previously
filled his mouth with dye, and that "he wrote hieroglyphics and pro–
phecies on leaves of grass, which subsequently being found according to
his
prophecies, caused the slaves to believe him a miraculous being."
Higginson reports that as late as the eighteen-sixties there were tradi–
tions among Virginia slaves of the "keen devices of Prophet Nat."
"If
he were caught with lime and lamp black conning over a half-finished
county ·map on the bam door, he was always 'planning what to do ·if
he were blind' or 'studying how to get to Mr. Francis' house.'''
