"The Confessions of Nat Turner" by William Styron. NY: Random House, (1967). First Printing. Jacket design by Paul Bacon.
From the blurb on the dust jacket:
In the late summer of 1831, in a remote section of southeastern Virginia, there took place the only effective, sustained revolt in the annals of American Negro slavery . . .
The revolt was led by a remarkable Negro preacher named Nat Turner, an educated slave who felt himself divinely ordained to annihilate all the white people in the region.
"The Confessions of Nat Turner" is narrated by Nat himself as he lingers in jail through the cold autumnal days before his execution. The compelling story ranges over the whole of Nat's life, reaching its inevitable and shattering climax that bloody day in August.
"The Confessions of Nat Turner" is not only a masterpiece of storytelling; it also reveals in unforgettable human terms the agonizing essence of Negro slavery. Through the mind of a slave, William Styron has re-created a catastrophic event, and dramatized the intermingled miseries, frustrations -- and hopes -- which caused this extraordinary black man to rise up out of the early mists of our history and strike down those who had held his people in bondage.
A native of the Tidewater region of Virginia, William Styron grew up not far from Southampton County, where Nat Turner's revolt took place. The story of Nat Turner was the subject of the first novel that the author wanted to write, and he has maintained a special interest in American Negro slavery ever since. He has written three other novels, "Lie Down in Darkness," "The Long March," and "Set This House on Fire."
"The Confessions of Nat Turner" by William Styron. NY: Random House, (1967). First Printing. Jacket design by Paul Bacon.
From the blurb on the dust jacket:
In the late summer of 1831, in a remote section of southeastern Virginia, there took place the only effective, sustained revolt in the annals of American Negro slavery . . .
The revolt was led by a remarkable Negro preacher named Nat Turner, an educated slave who felt himself divinely ordained to annihilate all the white people in the region.
"The Confessions of Nat Turner" is narrated by Nat himself as he lingers in jail through the cold autumnal days before his execution. The compelling story ranges over the whole of Nat's life, reaching its inevitable and shattering climax that bloody day in August.
"The Confessions of Nat Turner" is not only a masterpiece of storytelling; it also reveals in unforgettable human terms the agonizing essence of Negro slavery. Through the mind of a slave, William Styron has re-created a catastrophic event, and dramatized the intermingled miseries, frustrations -- and hopes -- which caused this extraordinary black man to rise up out of the early mists of our history and strike down those who had held his people in bondage.
A native of the Tidewater region of Virginia, William Styron grew up not far from Southampton County, where Nat Turner's revolt took place. The story of Nat Turner was the subject of the first novel that the author wanted to write, and he has maintained a special interest in American Negro slavery ever since. He has written three other novels, "Lie Down in Darkness," "The Long March," and "Set This House on Fire."