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April 23rd, 2008
Santa Cruz, California
Received by FAB
I am here, Nat Turner.
What I wish to tell the world is, murder is murder, no matter how
unjustly the murderer has been treated. I found this out to my sorrow.
If the whites, as I thought, were the oppressor race, this did not
justify in the eyes of God the killing I committed. In fact, by
doing that, I truly added to my own misery.
I was gifted of the Lord. I knew things that ordinarily could not
be known. But this could not remove the awful penalty for taking
many lives in a brutal manner. As I saw it over here, I became the
oppressor, and though at the time I did these horrible deeds I exulted
in them, when I came over here, I was horrified to discover that
some very ugly and hellish spirits were congratulating me for a
job well done, and I realized, with a shock, that I partook of evil,
just as my white oppressors had. And I could not bear the thought
that though many of these whites were in fact oppressive, many of
these same whites did not descend to murder as I had.
So I was in a similar category as white sinners. This spirit world
is the great leveler, and no spirit can possibly avoid the penalty
of the Law of Compensation.
The murderer suffers, and since I killed many, and in a brutal
way, my sufferings have been correspondingly great.
I have heard about the Divine Love and have yearned to apply It,
but something always seems to stop me from pursuing It.
Nat, commonly called Nat Turner, (October 2, 1800
– November 11, 1831) was an American slave whose slave rebellion
in Southampton County, Virginia, was the most remarkable instance
of black resistance to enslavement in the antebellum southern United
States. His methodical slaughter of white civilians during the uprising
makes his legacy controversial, but he is still considered by many
to be a heroic figure of black resistance to oppression. At birth
he was not given a surname, but was recorded solely by his given
name, Nat. In accordance with a common practice, he was often called
by the surname of his owner, Samuel Turner.
Nat started his rebellion with a few trusted fellow slaves. The
rebels traveled from house to house, freeing slaves and killing
all the white people they found. The rebels ultimately included
more than 50 enslaved and free blacks.
Because the rebels did not want to alert anyone to their presence
as they carried out their attacks, they initially used knives, hatchets,
axes, and blunt instruments instead of firearms. Nat called on his
group to "kill all whites." The rebellion did not discriminate
by age or gender, although Nat later indicated that he intended
to spare women, children, and men who surrendered as it went on.
Before Nat and his brigade of rebels met resistance at the hands
of a white militia, 57 white men, women and children had been killed.
(Source: Wikipedia)
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