"Slave psychology and effective American slave management (which encourages a "cheerful disposition" and "initiative) combined to produce slaves which not only turned on their own liberators to protect their masters, but turned on them in "a fine spirit." Which helps explain why there were so few slave rebellions. Not only were they doomed, and not only were they without context, but so often fellow slaves either refused to participate or worse, exposed plots and defended their masters with arms. These actions further reinforce the notion that a rebellion was not only doomed, but even the idea of rebelling was somehow not normal and perhaps evil. You rally would have to be as crazy and schizophrenic as Nat Turner to not be affected; you'd have to have voices in your head louder than those around you to convince you that a slave rebellion was the right, sane response."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Mark Ames, Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond (2005), p. 59
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nat_Turner
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Nat Turner
Nat Turner (2 October 1800 – 11 November 1831) was an enslaved African man who led a 1831 rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia.
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