How to Remember Turner?

What first made me interested in history was hearing the story of people that came before me and seeing myself in them. Ever since we were children, history has been framed to us to create identity as people of “western civilization.” I remember being in 7^th grade learning about the Persian wars. I and my peers naturally saw ourselves in the Greeks. The Persians played the cartoon villain. It was the same scenario when dealing with the ancient Hebrews. American children are taught to see a line of heritage all the way from the people of the Bible the Greeks and Romans then the British to pilgrims to revolutionaries to modern America. That is how my classically inclined school taught history. Now I have trouble with the sort of empathy I have built towards historical figures.

            In the story of Nat Turner, what characters do most Americans see themselves in? There is a telling lack of inspiration and mythology in the minds of white Americans. Compare Nat Turner to other historical figures who made ill-fated last stands. Thermopylae is taught as a proud moment in Western Civilization that belongs to seemingly every white person’s chosen historical identity. The Alamo remains an important piece of Texan memory. Nat Turner was an American who fought and died for other Americans’ freedom, yet he is often referenced as a complicated figure. While he fought for values that we Americans hold today, rebelled against an American institution and killed Americans. It was the U.S. government that executed him.  I am embarrassed to admit that I had not even heard of him until college. The obvious explanation is that he killed people who looked like me. It is easier for this culture to commemorate Spartans killing foreign brown people. But Nat Turner was an actual American.  Compared to the people at the Alamo and Thermopylae, his values were by far the closest to our own today. It bothers me anyone could see themselves in Turner's enslavers.

            Given the monument built for him in Virginia, it seems things are changing. It still leaves me conflicted though.  When white people like me claim him as a mythical hero, similar to how Martin Luther King Jr has been remembered for decades now, it can be dangerous to forget that people who looked like us white people, perhaps even ancestors, were his enemy. Perhaps that’s an even better way to remember him than the cartoonish image we keep of the Alamo. Instead of ignoring him or claiming him as our own, this country should take responsibility for the circumstances that created his story. It is especially dangerous with people like Mlk. White people now for some reason view him as a unifying figure, ignoring that he was divisive in his time and white people living today likely would have seen him as dangerous had they lived in his time.

Pledged, Matthew Coughlon

Works cited:

 “Shock and Awe: Nat Turner and the Old Dominion.” Talking Points Memo. September 27, 2017. Accessed October 13, 2017. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/shock-and-awe-nat-turner-and-the-old-dominion