Most of the reasoning about Turner's personality must be inferential, and so must the reconstruction of his full intentions about his rebellion. On the matter of his superior attitude toward fellow slaves, the best historical evidence that exists supports Styron, but aloofness is not always an expression of contempt, and the real Nat Turner may very well have felt more identification with and compassion for his fellow slaves than Styron allows. Partisans of the revolutionary tradition and especially black militants see Turner as a folk hero, and are understandably offended that Styron portrays him as aloof and contemptuous toward most blacks, and affectionate only toward selected black boys and white girls. Much of the debate over the novel has turned on the character of Nat Turner himself. Stowe, it gains favorable publicity even when it is attacked, and is now being seriously recommended to students of history as a generally valid description of slavery as it was in the southern United States. $6.95.) William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner is the most widely read and discussed representation of American Negro slavery since Uncle Tom's Cabin. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:īOOK REVIEWS The Confessions of Nat Turner.
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