Nat Turner: Ecological Resistance

• In Event: Black Political Philosophy and Ecological Justice

Description for Program

Nat Turner, a slave, resisted enslavement. He reflected a nascent black eco-theology expressing himself theologically through the lens of nature in visions from God. His theology was based on Western Christianity that was imposed on him as a slave. Yet he made Christianity his own as a person of African descent perhaps also drawing on African cosmology.

In 1831 Southampton, Virginia, Turner arguably led the most famous slave insurrection in North America. The insurrection was historically significant and continues to be part of the collective imagination of many in the US through the recent film “The Birth of a Nation” (2016).

Turner believed that God gave him visions that were spiritually-based and prophetic. The insurrectionist quoted scripture as part of his visions filled with images of nature. He did so in the tradition of Old Testament prophets. He believed he was called by God as His prophet to lead a slave revolt. Given permission from God to rebel, Turner did so in the tradition of slave insurrectionists Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey. Arguably they all acted prophetically to resist enslavement incrementally transforming an oppressive institutionalized culture to one in which African Americans were ultimately freed from enslavement.

Author

• Dianne Glave