Tony,

I appreciate your comments and the quote from my sources that emphasized the 
heinousness of the crime. Yet, his crimes pales somewhat in the light of the 
crimes committed against slaves on a routine basis and considered part of 
the "rights" of ownership. I did not mention in the piece, for the sake of 
brevity, that the owners of the slave executed for the rebellion were 
financially compensated by the state for the loss of their "property".

What I wanted to make apparent was that slaves were not complacent with 
their destiny as property, and in some instances, such a Nat Turner, made 
very loud statements that indicated they wanted their freedom. Instead of 
listening and learning from this rebellion, the proponants of slavery merely 
instituted harsher laws to prevent further "uprisings". This was an 
opportunity for the good people of Virginia to overturn slavery as an unjust 
system that so burdened the victims that they would rise to the point of 
heinous crime in order to attain their freedom. Instead, the took a note 
from the pharaoh of yore, and hardened their hearts against their oppressed 
servants.

One thing that I hope children will gain from this story is that freedom 
burns in the hearts of all who are oppressed, and that suppressing the 
expression of that freedom leads to gruesome consequences. Freedom is 
precious, and not just to our forefathers, but also to those who were 
enslaved by those same forefathers.

Anne

Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]
http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org 

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