here i am talking at gettysburg. guys back toyou 1831? know, isg, as you central battle, the place where the most important battle happened in american history. it's also the place of the gettysburg address. telle come here, unlikeit's noo you about 1863 more than you

already know. let me start with abraham lincoln. addresshas anyone ever aged asn five years? abraham lincoln gets up and one of the things he does is he is sitting there. and he starts talking about southhampton county. he asks his audience and new yorkers what induced the southhampton direction 28 years many as threeas times as many lives were lost.

back to 1831, not 1832, the year gettysburg college was founded. it's not lincoln who is president, it is jackson. that guy.

economics. i want to set this economically. when we look at the civil war, many more historians know railr. 18:30 -- 1830. here is a map of railroad

construction in the united states by decade. 18:30 there is nothing. there are three dots. there are two dots in pennsylvania. shows how advanced pennsylvania is. there are no railroads. we want to remember there is a good deal more isolation. thewhat they do have a sense is coming as cotton revolution.

there have been caught news forever. but there is going to be a tremendous increase in the as webility of cotton --e from here is a map of cotton production. top one is not cotton production of 1820. bottom one is cotton production in 1860. of expansionamount of cotton production. production isn born to read right along the coast of south carolina and georgia. with the cotton

production. hold on. with the cotton production is going to come slavery. i'm going to jump ahead.

one of the great institutions of america, i say that, i don't know with italics, american colonization society, think about it, we're not talking about ending slavery. --are sending three blacks freewe have a missouri compromi.

slavery appears on the national stage. what do we get? we get slavery in missouri. slavery won't go 3630, but slavery is there. one more thing. the new york emancipation law. think about this. new york. new york can't figure out how to emancipate it some slaves. it passes many, especially

black people to go out and try to start up what we think of as modern abolition. the friedman's journal, first black newspaper published in america, and united states, in new york. 1829,walker's appeal, calling for slaves to fight for their freedom. lloyd garrison's

the liberator. england, abolition having more success. keep that in mind. iss reflects english slavery well in the not cotyou can sees

average price of a slave over the years before civil war. what does this chart show? booms and busts. maybe i don't know how to use this.

whatever. happen in thenics world economy, the american economy. panics happen but slavery is there. the price of slaves growing, 1860, price of slaves is at an ?ll-time map. right there on the petersburg, between norfork on the north carolina border. here is a map, i'm not sure how well it appears, part to see.

states, 1830, slave population. roughly, red are orange dots, the middle ones, southampton county, 50% slave. lots of slaves. virginia is the heart of slavery. cotton boom is happening, biggest plantations, which had been in south carolina will move to mississippi and alabama. mississippi more than alabama. louisiana and mississippi. these plantations don't ever change the fact that virginia is the largest slaveholding state in the country in 1860. virginia has a norma's sleigh popular -- enormous slave

populations. if you're going to start a rebellion, you need to know the demographics. what are they in virginia? in virginia, whites outnumber propitiou county? southampton county has more slaves than whites. i also want to go back to this

map of cotton production. production extends into southampton county. when we see where it is going, we know where sleigh production is going. the black belt, the mississippi river. this will also play an important role in the revolt. why? we see the shift of the slave population from the coast, which is where it is in the 1830 map, to the mississippi river area. without taking the slave population away from virginia. virginia still has a slave

population, it is just the growth in slave population happens in the west. slaves ine number of the country in 1830? 2 million. in 1860? 4 million. -- enormousowth in growth in slave population in the country. notice this. slaves -- i don't want to get my numbers reversed -- southampton county population down. why? slaves tot a centralwhat induce

rebel? ,ne thing that may have done this may be one of thewhat indu?

nat turner. who is he? whites thought he was crazy. fanatic. thomas gray, the man who wrote down nat turner's confessions. they are available online.

a preacher, pretend profit. this fits in with a model of understanding that has lasted are.een an importanthere we

how do we understand him? the other view is that he is a heroic figure. if anyone has seen the new movie, which again, ken greenberg and i saw together, that may have been the entire audience. heroic. a nation did nohe is cy

nat turner is the hero, the man who does great things. this is not new in 2016. it goes back, here he is being the great preacher and the slaves are enthralled by his leadership. that is not how it went down. i want to tell you aunlike the s more accurate. first step, conspiracy. what happens? 1831, the clips of the sun. you can see the eclipse, which goes through southampton county. it is awesome. nat turner says in the

appearance, and the immediately the sign appearing in the heavens, the seal was removed from my lips and i communicated a great work laid out for me to do, to florida and whom i had the greatest in whom i -- to four had the greatest confidence. thit is pretty clear. in the newspaper article investigating this, found, the rebels decided not to tell more people because the word always leaked.

, telling about the plan. how do you set up a slave revolt? let's start with the premises i have. one is, he is not crazy. number slaves 3-2 in virginia. how doeven

if i wanted to. talk to the hand. what is he going to do? they came up with the idea of starting on july 4, another meaningful moment. why july 4? july 3 is a great day. julytical terms?

is he thinking about it like frederick douglass does? i don't think so. i think he is religious. right? say, july 4n they comes around, what happens? this is what he said. it was intended to us to begun the work july 4 last. it affected my mind to such degree that i fell sick and the time passed without our coming to any determination on how to commence. he got worried. another sign he is not crazy.

ok, we are going to die. why? god wants mewhy?

because they want to. well.

what did give turner the confidence it was time to begin? a new sign? what was the sign? the sun appeared blue. i am not into reading harbingers in the sky but that would make me think twice. ok. yeah. all right. that is weird. revolt begins. here's the map where the revolt will take place. they start at joseph travis's house, the man who is turner's owner -- not his owner, his guardian of his owner -- anyway, they will set out and follow this path toward jerusalem. ok? what do they do? they start squabbling in the yard of joseph travis is about

who will hit first. turner says, you are talking, let's go do it. nah. you begin first. why? theythey go in and they kill the travis family. then they jump francis. some of these pictures are from the wpa, the actual pictures from 100 years later, from the farms. this is just a shack. they knock on the door, come on out. we have a message.

grab him. kill him. revolt begins initially taking advantage of surprise. morning, they start going quickly. they get horses and move. swing back.he they go to catherine whitehead's house and peter edwards and richard porter's and new terraces. nine on horseback, six are walking, they are making their way back toward jerusalem. when they get to catherine whitehead's plantation, a bigger plantation, turner will kill the only person he killed, margaret whitehead. lots have been made of this, as this graphic novel picture makes. william styron made back againsr

response comes in. once they realize word has spread, once they come to plantations abandoned, they come

together. they come together at the harris plantation and they are up to 40 slaves at this point and they are all excited about what is happening. as they make their way toward jerusalem, they're going to have, they're going to attack a schoolhouse, which is on levi waller's form, and they're going to kill women and children. the men on the farm escape. course, will be a big thing, as people look to tell the stories about the brutality. ultimately, they make battle. movie -- arom the

still from the movie, birth of a nation. the battle is a complete mess up.

i want to close with this. i want to draw your attention to what happens when he is discovered and the underappreciated lines that happened in the confessions. starting to go hunting, the document to the place. turner had hidden in his hiding space. gone to walk about, discover to me and sparked, on which thinking myself discovered, on making myself known they fled from me. what happens here?

ver him. cert --is finally cap captured, what is one of the great documents in american history? the confessions of nat turner.