Nat Turner Book

I bought and read this book because of three reasons: (1) it's graphics and oh the illustrations are so exquisite looking; (2) the book looks a real bargain at P180 with the 280 thick glossy pages and (3) I have been vacillating in finally cracking my copy of 1967 Pulitzer Price-winning and Time 100 book, William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner open. Why? It seems like a daunting book to read: thick, historical and it has a picture of a black man looking over a horizon in a pensive mood that gives an impression of a heavy book to read.

So, I told myself that if I would know who Nat Turner was in just few hours that would be a sweet deal. Of course with the hope that this book would make me really interested to read further about him and finally start and finish that Styron's Pulitzer book. Good thinking. I liked Nat Turner and it made me feel like searching for my copy of Styron's among the stacks of my tbr books.

Nat Turner (1800-1831) must have been in most American history books. He was one of those historical people who were hard to categorize whether a hero or a villain, a friend or a foe, a saint or a devil. Why? Nat Turner was an American Slave who led the black uprising in Southampton, Virginia in 1831 resulting to the deaths of 53 (based on the book) whites. As a slave, he was not taught how to read by anyone so one day, he picked up the bible and miraculously, he learned how to read all by himself! His people looked at him as some sort of a messiah who would lead them out of slavery because he knew how to read! So, he did what he had to do and one night he dreamed of a serpent and he interpreted it as a sign from heaven above so he told his people to kill their white masters.

I am recounting the first half of the story because reading Nat Turner is an interesting experience. On that part of being a slave sold in the market together with his family and all the ordeals he had to go through as a slave, my heart was all for him and I wept looking at the illustrations like the one with his father being seized by the white bastards (excuse the language). Then after a page or two, when he and his black minions were on the killing rampage, I did not know how to react and at some point asked myself what the hell (excuse the language again) was going on. Oh, I am just being carried away by the emotional roller-coaster brought about by reading this book. Simply say, there is no hero in this book. Baker presented both Nat Turner's strengths and weaknesses. Just like all of us, Nat Turner has both sides.

And the amazing thing is that: Baker did the storytelling almost wordless. For somebody like me who had no idea who Nat Turner was, there are excerpts from the actual confessions Nat Turner uttered to his lawyer Thomas Ruffin Gray in 1831 when he was in jail prior to his hanging. Otherwise, the graphics are totally void of any words except ones like "Run, daddy, run!" cried Turner when his father was being seized by the white bastards (oh, I just can't help it).

If the story told via illustrations will not make you angry, you are a cold-hearted stone!