On this day, 30 October 1831, the previously-enslaved rebel leader Nat Turner was captured in Virginia. Two months prior, Turner and six other enslaved men owned by the Travis-Moore family in Southampton County began a rebellion, killing the family while they slept. They proceeded to go from house-to-house, killing slaveowners, taking horses and recruiting more rebel fighters. Eventually white authorities sent in armed militia as well as state and federal troops and succeeded in suppressing the uprising, but Turner escaped and went into hiding. After his arrest, Turner was tried, convicted, hanged and skinned. 54 other Black people were also executed, and up to 200 others murdered by white mobs in revenge attacks. However, other white people in the state began to advocate abolishing slavery, or repatriating all enslaved and free African Americans to Liberia. In 1832 public pressure forced an abolitionist bill to be considered by the Virginia state legislature but it failed to get enough votes to pass, and instead harsh repressive laws were passed against free and enslaved Black people to limit their rights to associate and learn to read to try to prevent future rebellions. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1250291788489302/?type=3
As some of our neighbors already know, multiple members of the Steel
City John Brown Gun Club attended the Second Amendment rally in
Richmond, Virginia this past Monday. We helped bring together
antifascist/antiracist community defense organizers from across the
region and beyond to stand in critical solidarity with those rallying in
protest against that state’s new package of restrictive firearms
legislation. While we understand that the issue of gun control, and this
rally in particular, is a fraught one, we decided to engage, believing
that building relationships and participating in public spaces of
resistance is more worthwhile than opting out just because they are
complicated. If similar laws were implemented in our region, much of the
community defense work that we do would could be rendered a felony.
This includes our work of providing training to community members who
desire the means and skills required to defend themselves and their
neighbors.
