ABSTRACT
WILSON JEREMIAH MOSES has written of Nat Turner, the inspirer and leader of the 1831 slave rebellion, that, at the apogee of his influence, he had reached “an advanced stage of acculturation.” The phrase comes from Moses’ book Black Messiahs and Uncle Toms. “The basis of Turner’s control over the other blacks,” argues Moses, “was his understanding of the dominant culture, his mastery of the white man’s language and religion, symbolized by his ability to read and interpret the Bible” (1993:64). Turner’s leverage derived from his ability to move chameleon-like between two cultures. And this was made possible by his understanding of whites.
