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.Evangelical Christians were often sharplydivided on the question of slavery.Nothing reveals this fault line in South-ampton s white society better than the history of the Baptist Black CreekChurch and its tempestuous relationship with its most outspoken minis-ters.One, David Barrow, was born in 1753 in Brunswick County, Virginia,west of Southampton County.He became a minister just before the Amer-ican Revolution and spent over two decades in Southside Virginia preach-ing the Good News.He thought that Virginia suffered from itscommitment to slavery, and in 1784 he manumitted his slaves.When hepublished an antislavery circular in 1798 he was dismissed from theservice of Black Creek Church.That year, Barrow left Southampton forthe greener pastures of Kentucky, where he continued to speak out force-fully against the system of human bondage.28No doubt, Southampton included many strong supporters of slavery.Black Creek Church itself contained more members who disagreed withits outspoken minister than agreed with him, but the degree to whichopponents of slavery persisted in Southampton can be seen in the tradi-tion of manumissions.Well before Nat Turner s rebellion terrified manySouthampton whites, manumissions created a large free black populationin the county.Although more than 70 of the county s free blacks left forLiberia between 1824 and the 1831 rebellion, the free black populationin the county continued to grow, both by birth and manumission.29While the vast majority of Southampton whites supported slavery, thecontinued presence of white opponents of slavery reminded those in theblack community that they were not alone.On the fourth weekend inDecember 1825 just months after Turner had his first premonitionabout a war for freedom Jonathan Lankford, the minister at Black CreekChurch, told the congregation that he would no longer perform his dutiesas minister.To the same congregation that David Barrow had left 30 yearsearlier, he announced that he could not serve them  because Part of thechurch were slaveholders. The congregation had no tolerance for suchwords from the pulpit.Lankford was expelled from the church that hehad belonged to for a quarter of a century and had led for seven years.A church committee reviewing the incident two years later upheld theaction of the congregation, finding that Lankford had  yielded too muchto the delusion of Satan. 30Without a doubt, slaves found as much wrong with the system of humanbondage as their most sympathetic white allies.Most black Christians cer-tainly believed that racial slavery was not part of the message of Jesus.Because of the impediments of slavery, however, the historical record issilent to the great  amen that Lankford s and Barrow s words would haveA Prophet in His Own Land 115elicited in the slave quarters throughout Southampton, let alone the pow-erful words proclaimed by black witnesses against the institution of slaveryto their fellow slaves.Only one piece of evidence tenuously links the Chris-tian tradition to the supporters whom Turner was able to assemble.Inone of the trials of the participants in the insurrection, Levi Waller testi-fied that his slave Davey was called  brother Clements by another mem-ber of Turner s band.31 While it remains unclear whether Christianity ledDavey and his friend to join the rebellion, this shred of evidence indicatesthat at least two of the soldiers seem to have been members of Christiancommunities.One suspects that of the 60 or more supporters who joinedNat Turner, more than these two men were Christians.Whatever the finalnumber, the black Christians in Turner s army believed that they had Godon their side as they fought against a sinful institution.While some of Nat Turner s allies may have supported the rebellionbecause of their religious beliefs, other slaves joined to escape the disci-pline of slavery.Breaking free from the discipline of slavery even if onlyfor a short time was tempting to many slaves.In October 1831, in Fin-castle, Virginia, 250 miles from Southampton, local whites examined Billy,a slave.They were looking for Nat Turner, the at-large leader of the re-bellion, when they heard testimony against Billy.The evidence against himwas limited, and one of the whites remarked in a letter that Billy  onlywanted an opportunity to do mischief. 32 Slaves in Fincastle had littlechance to flout the social conventions of the day, and Nat Turner s re-bellion offered the Southampton slaves who joined the rebellion a uniqueopportunity to act as they pleased.Before the first blow was struck, the first six recruits took advantage ofthe liberties that came with their decision to rebel.On Sunday afternoon,they enjoyed a dinner to which Hark brought a pig and Henry broughtbrandy.Alcohol, to which slaves access was usually restricted, was availableto the rebels in almost unlimited quantities.Henry s brandy was followedby fellowship and free-flowing applejack from Joseph Travis s still.LeviWaller testified at the trials that he saw the rebels drinking after they hadkilled ten schoolchildren and his wife.John Turner captured two rebels,Curtis and Stephen, and told the court that they appeared drunk at thetime.Nelson, too, was witnessed drinking, and his trip to the gallows wasassured when a witness testified that Nelson had  had his tickler filled byhis own request. 33Alcohol was not the only luxury that may have lured some slaves intothe rebellion.Nat Turner reported that as soon as the killing was doneat any household, there was a search for money and ammunition.Theimportance of arms is obvious, but it is revealing that money, which hadlittle practical use during the insurrection, was a priority for the rebels.Some may have believed that if the rebellion failed they would escapedetection and keep the booty they acquired, as apparently happened.Anewspaper report of the rebellion suggested that the rebels had probably116 communities and contextstaken between 800 and 1,000 dollars, only  part of which [was] recov-ered. Several weeks after the rebellion, some of that money was foundin the room of Lucy and Moses and was part of the evidence that ledLucy to the gallows.Hark, one of Nat Turner s first recruits, was alsocaught with silver in his pocket and with a victim s pocketbook.34 Otherrecruits may have hoped that if the rebellion were successful, they wouldbe able to use the money [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]