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. And yet, while proclaiming that thepossibility of a bloody insurrection in the South fills us with dismay, heaverred that if any people were ever justified in throwing off the yoke oftheir tyrants, the slaves are that people. Garrison also observed that ourenemies may accuse us of striving to stir up the slaves to revenge, buttheir false accusations are intended only to destroy our influence. 10In the spring of 1831, Garrison published an extensive three-part re-view of the Appeal by an unidentified correspondent.The writer acknowl-edged that Walker was an extremist but denied reports that the pamphletwas the incoherent rhapsody of a blood-thirsty, but vulgar and ignorantfanatic. Quoting at length from the text and approving Walker s analysis,the correspondent proclaimed that insurrection was inevitable, justifiable,even commendable.He recalled that a slave owner once said to me, Grant your opinions to be just, if you talk so to the slaves they will fall tocutting their master s throats. And in God s name, I replied, why shouldthey not cut their master s throats?.If the blacks can come to a senseof their wrongs, and a resolution to redress them, through their own in-strumentality or that of others, I shall rejoice. 11When word of Turner s revolt came, Garrison did not rejoice, but nei-ther did he denounce: I do not justify the slaves in their rebellion: yet Ido not condemn them.[O]ur slaves have the best reason to assert their 152 communities and contextsrights by violent measures, inasmuch as they are more oppressed thanothers. Noting that the crime of oppression is national, he directed hiscomments at New Englanders as well as Virginians.Indeed, it astonishedhim that northern editors opposed to slavery would express support forthe South.Badger s Weekly Messenger offered the tenderest sympathy forthe distresses of the slaveholders.And the New York Journal of Commercethought it understandable that under the circumstances the whitesshould be wrought up to a high pitch of excitement, and shoot downwithout mercy, not only the perpetrators, but all who are suspected of par-ticipation in the diabolical transaction. 12Among those suspected of inciting the slaves to revolt was Garrisonhimself.Within several weeks of the insurrection, southern editors wereseeking information about the dissemination of abolitionist literature.TheRichmond Enquirer asked its readers to inform us whether Garrison s Bos-ton Liberator (or Walker s Appeal) is circulated in any part of this State. The Vigilance Association of Columbia, South Carolina, offered a $1,500reward for the arrest and conviction of any white person circulating publications of a seditious tendency. In Georgia, the Senate passed aresolution offering a reward of $5,000 for Garrison s arrest and convic-tion.The National Intelligencer reprinted a letter claiming that the Liberatoris published by a white man with the avowed purpose of inciting rebellionin the South and is carried by secret agents who, if caught, should bebarbecued.Northern editors also evinced hostility and pledged to sup-press the misguided efforts of.short-sighted and fanatical persons. Garrison began receiving anonymous letters, filled with abominable andbloody sentiments, some of which he published in the Liberator.Oneslaveholder, writing from the nation s capital, warned Garrison to desistyour infamous endeavors to instill into the minds of the negroes the ideathat men must be free. The prospect of martyrdom only deepened theactivist s resolve: [I]f the sacrifice of my life be required in this greatcause, I shall be willing to make it. 13As to the charge of inciting the slaves to murder, Garrison proclaimedthat the Liberator courts the light, and not darkness. He reminded read-ers that he was a pacifist whose creed held that violence of any kind forwhatever reason was contrary to Christian precepts.With typical sarcasm,he retorted that if Southerners wanted to prohibit incendiary publications,they should ban their own statute books and issue a warrant for ThomasGray whose pamphlet on Nat Turner will only serve to rouse up otherleaders and cause other insurrections. The blow for freedom, he ex-plained, originated in experiences, not words on the page: The slavesneed no incentives at our hands.They will find them in their stripes intheir emaciated bodies in their ceaseless toil in their ignorant mindsin every field, in every valley, on every hill-top and mountain, whereveryou and your fathers have fought for liberty. Garrison likened Turner toother revolutionary leaders: [A]lthough he deserves a portion of the ap- Nat Turner and Sectional Crisis 153plause which has been so prodigally heaped upon Washington, Bolivar,and other heroes, for the same rebellious though more successful conduct,yet he will be torn to pieces and his memory cursed. 14Garrison was not alone in viewing Turner s revolt as part of a transat-lantic revolutionary movement. The whole firmament, he believed, istremulous with an excess of light. In 1830 and 1831, across the Westernworld, blows for freedom were being struck.The Belgians obtained in-dependence.In France, the King fled.The British Parliament debated theReform Bill.In Poland, the Diet declared independence.David Child, theeditor of the Massachusetts Journal, proclaimed that the oppressed andenslaved of every country, Hayti and Virginia as well as France and Poland,have a right to assert their natural and unalienable rights whenever andwherever they can. A New York editor declared, These are the days ofrevolutions, insurrections, and rebellions, throughout the world. And yet do we hear any portion of the American press rejoice at the success ofthe efforts of the enslaved AMERICAN to obtain their liberty mourn overtheir defeats or shed a solitary tear of sympathy and pity for their misery,unhappiness, and misfortune? The writer denounced the hypocrisy ofthose who rejoice at the success of liberty, equality, justice, and freedom,or mourn and sympathize at its defeat abroad yet say nothing of its courseat home. By their actions, some of the enslaved population of freeAmerica.have declared their independence
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