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YoungmeeKimThe Confessions of Nat Turner represents a historical figure who led a slave rebellion in Virginia, 1831. Before the publication of this novel, Nat Turner was rarely known in the official history. He was just told as ‘an old prophet' in black people's oral tradition. From a small amount of documents about him we can find two opposite perspectives of him. One is the perspective of Southern whites who wanted to reconstruct him as a ‘religious fanatic.' The other is the viewpoint of North abolitionists who wanted to reconstruct him as ‘a romantic hero.'Styron's Nat Turner is represented as a slave leader who loved a white girl whom he had to kill to prove his leadership. The relationship between him and this white girl, which is highly important in Styron's novel, is problematically represented. That's because Nat is seen to be almost obsessed with his sexual desire for this girl's white young body. Although they share spiritual and intellectual sensibility, Nat's attention is too much focused on her physical attraction, especially when they are alone. In his sexual fantasy he seems to be too aggressive to the pure white body. Even just before his death his sexual fantasy is reexperienced. In this aspect of Nat, the myth of black men's sexuality and the fear of rape of white women are reflected, which has been constructed since the reconstruction period.
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The Confessions of Nat Turner, slave rebellion, Southern whites, North abolitionists, sexual fantasy, black men's sexuality, the reconstruction period
