William Styron's Nat Turner : Ten Black Writers Respond

by John Henrik Clarke

Originally published as William Styron's Nat Turner. These essays address the misrepresentation of Turner's life and activities by white writers. The contributors include Lerone Bennett Jr., John O. Killens, Alvin Poussaint, and John A. Williams

Genres: Literary Criticism, Race, Nonfiction, American History, Criticism

130 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1968

Reviews

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am sympathetic to the people who raised (and still raise) their fists in the Black Power salute. If you read Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner, you should read this book if you can obtain a copy.

Here are a couple of excerpts from this 120 page book. One failing of the book is that all ten Black writers are men.

Why has the book received so much applause from the established press and a large number of well-known "scholars" who, in praising this book, display their ignorance of the true story of the Nat Turner revolt? Have they failed to see Nat Turner as a hero and revolutionist out of fear that they might have to see H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael the same way?

You should be prepared to confront Black anger in this book. I think there is good cause for anger.

The founding fathers, including Washington and Jefferson, held our foreparents in bondage. Thus those greatest of "revolutionaries" were, in grim reality, freedom loving slavemasters.

Right on!

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of opinions on the controversial The Confession of Nat Turner and each more valid than the next. My only negative would be that the arguments, while accurate, are repetitive and it would be more interesting to have each writer describe one aspect one the novel.

[Raoul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good to read as a companion to The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Stryon.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

For an older white northerner, this book was a critical companion in what these ten black writers felt about Styron's novel.

The summation in the essay 'Back with the Wind' may have encapsulated it best:

"If this book is important, it is so not because it tells much about Negro experience during slavery but because of the manner in which it demonstrates the persistence of white southern myths, racial stereotypes, and literary cliches even in the best intentioned and most enlightened minds. Their largely uncritical acceptance in literary circles shows us how far we still have to go. The real 'history' of Nat Turner, and indeed of black people, remains to be written."

I now question my confidence in whether or not we have gone far enough in telling black history and truly educating ourselves about it as well.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating take on William Styron's novel Confessions of Nat Turner. It really reminds readers that, even under the guise of "fiction," there are real lives, real events, and real emotions attached to history.