surpassed by few men," "with a mind capable of attaining any thing"; who
knew no book but his Bible, and that by heart; who devoted himself soul
and body to the cause of his race, without a trace of personal hope or
fear; who laid his plans so shrewdly that they came at last with less
warning than any earthquake on the doomed community around; and who, when
that time arrived, took the life of man, woman, and child, without a
throb of compunction, a word of exultation, or an act of superfluous
outrage? Mrs. Stowe's "Dred" seems dim and melodramatic beside the actual
Nat Turner, and De Quincey's "Avenger" is his only parallel in
imaginative literature. Mr. Gray, his counsel, rises into a sort of
bewildered enthusiasm with the prisoner before him. "I shall not attempt
to describe the effect of his narrative, as told and commented on by
himself, in the condemned-hole of the prison. The calm, deliberate
composure with which he spoke of his late deeds and intentions, the
expression of his fiend-like face when excited by enthusiasm, still
bearing the stains of the blood of helpless innocence about him, clothed
with rags and covered with chains, yet daring to raise his manacled hands
to heaven, with a spirit soaring above the attributes of man,--I looked
on him, and the blood curdled in my veins."

But, the more remarkable the personal character of Nat Turner, the
greater the amazement felt that he should not have appreciated the
extreme felicity of his position as a slave. In all insurrections, the
standing wonder seems to be that the slaves most trusted and best used
should be most deeply involved. So in this case, as usual, men resorted
to the most astonishing theories of the origin of the affair. One
attributed it to Free-Masonry, and another to free whiskey,--liberty
appearing dangerous, even in these forms. The poor whites charged it upon
the free colored people, and urged their expulsion; forgetting that in
North Carolina the plot was betrayed by one of this class, and that in