Identify an audience that would be interested in your historical event and research question. For example, who would benefit most from hearing your message?
Nate Turner Rebellion
Add on to the attached writing plan:
– Identify an audience that would be interested in your historical event and research question. For example, who would benefit most from hearing your message?
– Describe how and why you can tailor your message to your audience, providing specific examples. For example, will your audience understand historical terminology and principles associated with your event, or will you need to explain these? How will you communicate effectively with your audience?
HIS 200: Applied History
Southern New Hampshire University
July 14, 2019
Preliminary Writing Plan
For my historical event analysis, I have chosen to focus on Nat Turner’s Rebellion and its significance. Nat Turner’s rebellion was an intensely violent slave uprising against their masters that took place in August 1831 at southeastern Virginia, led by Nat Turner (Allyn, 2019). Turner, an educated slave was a charismatic leader who drew around 60 followers from local farms and organized them to kill. After the massacre, many of them were captured and hanged. This event is significant to the history of Black American slaves as it influenced outlooks of slavery for decades.
The secondary sources that I could use to research my historical event are the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website and “Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion: Including the 1831 “Confessions” by Herbert Aptheker (2006). Gilder Lehrman is a source that includes information from a primary source to support the information provided. The book by Herbert Aptheker is a detailed book on Turner and the turn of events, which offers a broader perspective to the event.
The sources are appropriate and relevant for investigating my event because they are authoritative, objective, sourced, and peer reviewed, and are written by scholars. Their level of engagement is strong enough to provide evidence for the listed arguments. When I was searching for these sources, I kept thinking to myself that I needed material that is reliable and could provide the information that I needed in detail and in a format that was easy to read and understand. I also needed a source that was coherent in its nature of presentation. As such, these sources are appropriate and relevant for investigating my event in that they are precise and focus on the incident in details. They are also supported by evidence from primary sources, which makes them reliable.
My research question is: Could it have been that the slaves stirred Turner’s decision of murder? My curiosity is led by the incidence of this slave’s return to become of service to his master as directed by the ‘Spirit’. In his personal account, Turner talked about escaping to the woods for thirty days before being instructed to return and serve his master. Upon getting there, the slaves were not pleased at seeing him and his reason displeased them. According to Turner, they dissuaded his sense and told him off for his return. In the subsequent days, Turner saw blood visions, which he translated to be a sign for murder. Though he failed to mention any contribution by the slaves, could have their comments pushed him to thinking in the manner that he did?
References
Allyn, N. (2019). History Now. Retrieved from https://www.gilderlehrman.org/content/nat-turner%E2%80%99s-rebellion-1831
Aptheker, H. (2006). Nat Turner’s slave rebellion : including the 1831 “Confessions. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications.