![]() ![]() It deals with John Hampden Pleasants’ work, a precursor to modern-day investigative journalism, and the many responses to his work which populated the columns of Northern newspapers, at a time when the North and South were not yet headed for certain war. The second section, “A Horrible Ferocity,” discusses the media’s coverage of and reaction to the Southampton Insurrection, the largest slave rebellion in the history of the United States. ![]() It deals with his supporters, who first deserted him and then rallied around him, championing his induction into the American pantheon. The first section, “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” explores the country’s reaction to John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, as well as his subsequent trial and execution. Later still, I saw an abolitionist movement that acted far too late- in the aftermath of John Brown’s execution, when it did with him what it should have done with Nat Turner yet did not a failure which may have indirectly caused the deaths of more than half a million people.Ī colorful and gripping scene evoking scenes from America's dark history of slavery is depicted in "Baltimore, My Baltimore," painting by Arvie Smith (2006). In William Lloyd Garrison, I discovered the great conflict of a gifted mind, still prisoner to a baseline of racism which deafened him to the faint whispers of change that echoed in the aftermath of Nat Turner’s rebellion. I found a glimmer of hope, winds of change in Virginia- where thousands of men and women of all walks of life joined together in short-lived abolitionist sentiment. I found a great man- John Hampden Pleasants- who stood head and shoulders above the rest of his Southern brethren, reporting honestly and truthfully, not only the vicious acts of Nat Turner and his men, but also the equally brutal consequences of Southern vigilante actions which saw hundreds of Blacks summarily executed in the aftermath of the Southampton Insurrection. I found a Southern press which struggled to comprehend Nat Turner’s ruinous attack, an abolitionist movement that was reluctant of putting its full weight behind a black man, and a Northern press that failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity to bring about change in the South. What I found is a world of newspapermen and abolitionists who were no less divided and conflicted than dictated by the zeitgeist in which they developed. I have also strived to understand the reaction of a nation which found itself utterly divided during this time period, and the ways in which Nat Turner’s and John Brown’s seminal events- the Southampton Insurrection and the raid on Harper’s Ferry, respectively- caused, or hastened, the dark clouds of Civil War which loomed large in the horizon. Although they were men who came from vastly different backgrounds, they somehow managed to arrive at the same conclusion: that slavery was an evil that had to be eradicated, and that their lives were a small enough price to pay for its defeat. I have lived with them, breathed their words and writing, in the hopes of arriving at the larger truth that lies within their eventual sacrifice. Throughout the better part of the past year, I have endeavored to understand the differing, and ultimately converging, lives of two men- Nat Turner and John Brown. Ultimately, the paper explores a variety of potential reasons for the differing reactions to these two pivotal events, and the possible consequences of the actions, and inactions, of the abolitionist movement and the press. The third section explores the contrasting reactions to Nat Turner’s and John Brown’s respective revolts, and analyzes some of the reasons why these events received such differing responses. The second section discusses the media coverage of and reaction to the Southampton Insurrection, the largest slave rebellion in the history of the United States. The first section explores the country’s reaction to John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, as well as his subsequent trial, conviction, and execution. This paper examines two influential slave uprisings and the treatment these received by both the abolitionist movement and the press. ![]()
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