September 16, 2016
Dear Liberty,
Last week’s letter, The Cost Of Rebellion, described the largest slave uprising in the British Colonies. A hundred years after the Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in the newly formed America occurred. Turner’s Rebellion had many of the same details as Stono’s. Whites were indiscriminately murdered. Rebel slaves were executed. Stricter and harsher slavery laws were instituted. The Abolition movement was stalled for decades.
Nat Turner was born enslaved on October 2, 1800, in Southampton County, Virginia. He was trained to abhor slavery from his mother. The master’s son taught him to read and write. He was also given intense religious instruction, which instilled in Turner the belief that God chose him to rescue his people.
Turner was sold twice before becoming the property of Joseph Travis. By this point, Turner’s religious views had reached a point of fanaticism. A charismatic preacher and leader, local slaves began to believe in his calling as well, nicknaming him "The Prophet." A sun eclipse convinced Turner his time of deliverance had come. Organizing a group of six trustworthy slaves, plans for a rebellion were formulated.
The group would march to Jerusalem, Virginia, to raid their armory. Once fully supplied, they would continue on their journey of blood and death to the Dismal Swamp 30 miles away where capture would be unlikely. Turner and his men started their bloody August 21, 1831, night by slaughtering the entire Travis family in their sleep.
In the two-day, two-night revolt, upwards of 60 whites were massacred by Turner’s band of slaves. As with the Stono Rebellion, others joined the rebels, which swelled to a group of about 75. Just miles before reaching Jerusalem, they were met by an armed resistance of 3,000 men made up of the state’s militia and local whites. The rebels scattered with most quickly caught or killed. Unlike Stono, many innocent slaves were trapped in the confusion and killed as well.
Turner was able to escape and remained on the run for six weeks. After his capture and trial, Turner was hanged on November 11, 1831, in Jerusalem.
Identical to 100 years before, more stringent and rigorous slave laws were enacted, once again tightening the chains around the necks of the slaves. Emancipation was gaining support in the area until Turner’s Rebellion. After the incident, the idea of emancipation virtually disappeared until Republican President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. (see Freedom Day)
It is indisputable the deplorable conditions slaves were forced to endure. Turner wanted to show slave owners that slaves were not content in their enslavement. He also wanted to proclaim to America that Christianity supported freedom for slaves. Unfortunately, he let his anger and frustration dictate his actions. He chose the Malcolm X path and not the Martin Luther King Jr. road. (see Free At Last?)
His rebellion was widely praised by slaves. It was an expression of their total exasperation for their circumstances. Many slaves then and people still today hold Turner’s Rebellion up as a complete success. These violent slave uprisings were effective in one thing, making life even more grueling for the slaves and for those advocating for the abolition of slavery.
Turner truly believed God was with him and he was doing God’s work. Romans 12:19 should have directed Turner otherwise, “for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” In all of Turner’s training and study, he lost focus on whose mission it was. Even Joshua was misdirected by asking the angel, "Are you for us or for our enemies?” The angel replied, “Neither, but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” (Joshua 5:13-14)
During the Civil War, Lincoln understood where our motivation must originate. “My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” (see Simple Solutions and God's Divine Providence)
While Turner was still considered “The Prophet,” it would be another 18 years before “America’s Moses” truly started liberating slaves. (see America’s Moses) Harriet Tubman was the MLK to Turner’s Malcolm X. After escaping herself, she worked diligently with the Underground Railroad to free hundreds of slaves. She risked her life, returning to the south at least 19 times, bringing groups of slaves back with her to freedom. She did not kill the masters or murder their children. Their fate was in God’s hands. Tubman just focused on her people, gathering them and bringing them to the Promised Land of independence with overwhelming success.
A new movie by Nate Parker about Nat Turner is set to release in October called The Birth of a Nation. The original The Birth Of A Nation, worshiped by Progressive Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, depicted the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. Parker says he purposely named his movie after the famous KKK revival movie so as to set the record straight.
The original movie was a complete propaganda piece that fed perfectly in the hands of the racist Wilson Administration. Not only was he responsible for re-segregating government offices, he chose this movie as the first motion picture to ever be shown in the White House. It’s no wonder since it quoted from his own book, History of the American People, praising the KKK for saving the white South. (See The Birth Of A Nation)
Thomas Dixon, author of The Clansman of which the original movie was based, commented, “The real purpose of my film was to revolutionize Northern audiences that would transform every man into a Southern partisan for life.” The movie so demonized and vilified blacks while victimizing whites that protests and riots broke out across the country. Moviegoers left the theater in mobs, harassing, bullying and in one case killing, any blacks in their way.
The original fictionally portrayed post-Civil War blacks as violent, murdering, rapists, attacking innocent whites. The KKK heroically rode in on white horses and saved the day. Parker’s reenacts a true event where pre-Civil War blacks were violent, murdering, vigilantes, attacking any whites in their path. The original empowered the KKK, feeding their racism. This time, it will be Black Lives Matter supporters who will leave the theaters searching for blood. Turner’s Rebellion will justify the BLM, feeding their desire to revolt.
The first movie was purposely designed to embolden the KKK. It is no coincidence Parker’s movie is being done now, 100 years later, and set to release just a month before the 2016 Elections. In today’s atmosphere, it could potentially result in more divisiveness, more death and more damage to America than the overtly racist original was. This movie was purposely designed to embolden BLM. (see Everything Free But Speech)
The BLM movement caught fire with Michael Brown, who like Turner, was a violent individual. He assaulted a shop owner before attacking an officer. After a struggle where he was unable to obtain the cop’s gun, Brown walked away. He then turned back to charge the officer, who had no choice but to shoot. (see Just The Facts, Ma’am.) It has been proven without a doubt the officer was justified in his actions. Brown lost his life but became the hero of the BLM movement, which followed in suit with more violence.
We have already experienced BLM activists harass whites on college campuses, threaten whites across the country, riot and vandalize cities like Ferguson and Baltimore, and assassinate cops just for wearing a uniform. (see Useful Idiots) They don’t care that their lives will end in jail or death. They believe they are successful if they can eliminate what they have been convinced is the enemy.
The Black Lives Matter movement has already proven to be violent. If they react violently to a movie about bloodshed, it will forever label them as savages. As with the rebellions, their cause will be tremendously harmed with our progress in race relations regressing for decades.
Liberty, I fear another Civil War is coming to America. But this one is not going to be as easy to fight. There is not a line we can draw across the middle of the country with one side fighting the other. We can’t even divide sides up by states. This will be a war fought within cities and towns with neighbors against neighbors. There won’t be uniforms. There won’t be battlefields. No one will know for sure who or where the enemy is. It will be random acts of violence and murder on the streets of Everytown, USA. It will be total chaos. It will be America’s Un-Civil War.
At times like these we must not look to the left or the right for answers. They are not there. We must look to God, with our knees bent, our heads bowed, and our hearts humbled. We must live the words of Abraham Lincoln: “With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds.” (see Disunity Of The Union)
America will survive, Liberty. I just continue to pray it is under God’s blessing.
That’s my 2 cents.
Love,
Mom
THE BIRTH OF A NATION
2016
