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SOUTHAMPTON--They agree it's important to share the story of Nat Turner, whose slave rebellion in Southampton County was a watershed historical event.
But local history authorities I spoke to recently in Virginia's Southside have different views on just what story gets told.
A new Turner documentary will be on PBS this week (See a review in today's TV Star) and I was curious about what folks in Turner's county had to say today about the slave revolt that killed more than 55 whites.
I found out by talking to two local historians quoted in the special.
James McGee
No one will ever accuse the tall, articulate painter and student of slave history of mincing words.
When we talked, the collector of black oral history made many controversial points.
Among them:
It's important for Turner's story to be told publicly in Southampton, with any artifacts and dwellings that can be saved.
Until recently, blacks in the county had very different takes on Turner. One was a doff-their-hat "Yasssir, that Nat was terrible!" response to whites in the segmented society; the other was a heartfelt "Ol' Nat's a hero" feeling shared only with other blacks.
The Turner "cop out" McGee can't stand comes from those who think history would be kinder to the slave leader had he spared women and children in the revolt.
"That argument conveniently overlooks what preceded the revolt: the heinous treatment these slaves got, being treated like beasts of the field, beaten, tortured, raped and separated from their families," said McGee, a retired VDOT fiscal officer.
He argues Turner wasn't clueless and ignorant, as some say.
As proof, the "about 70" McGee notes the recurring story that trickled down from blacks of Turner's day that he initially planned the revolt for July 4 at a spot called Cross Keys.
"What was the most hated place in the life of a slave?" asked McGee. "It was the place where slave auctions were held, where families were broken up. Cross Keys was one of those places, with auctions there a part of July Fourth festivities. For slaves, could there be a more clever and fitting place to strike back?"
Kitty Futtrell
Kitty Futtrell, one of the mainstays and founders of the county's historical society, is a stickler for historical record.
She wants Southampton history that's grounded in written histories, documents, maps or other hard and fast sources.
It's been that way since she became a source for many on Turner and the county's history.
A lifelong lover of history, the 80-year-old Futtrell focused more closely on Turner after an exchange with a granddaughter, who was in the fifth grade at the time.
Reporting on the school day to her dad, the young student said she'd learned about this black man who'd killed a bunch of white people in the county.
"Her father told her she'd better call me for the full story," she said.
Soon, Futtrell was invited to county schools each year to describe the revolt, and also began leading tours of revolt-related sites for students and adults.
That dovetailed nicely with library work that gave her access to historical materials.
Like McGee, Futtrell thinks Turner's story is too important to ignore, though the bitter memories it brought up kept it off-limits for years.
Growing up on a farm that abutted a house where white slave-owners were massacred, Futtrell shared that sentiment.
"My father said it was best to let sleeping dogs lie," she said. "But now I think the story of Nat Turner needs to be told."
She said the historical society is trying to do that, relocating a revolt-involved house to a complex where a museum is planned.
What bothers Futtrell and others in the county is the tendency for those who take up Turner as a cause to put their own spin on him and county history.
But she doubted that anyone who has studied slavery in that period could see those conditions as anything but atrocious.
"Turner tried to run away, but got caught and brought back," she said. "He became obsessed with his freedom. Having asked for it several times, and being denied, he knew of no other avenue but to take things into his own hands."
She parts with McGee on the belief that Turner could have helped his legacy by deciding not to kill women and children.
"Had he pulled back from that," she said, "and seen that viciousness for what it was, he might be seen differently."
Futtrell says one thing that causes a range of opinions in the county on the Turner rebellion is that there are descendents of slaves who took part and those killed in the revolt.
One was Gilbert Francis, who for years worked closely with Futtrell on the period's history and the production of a filmed tour and narrative about Turner and the revolt.
She said that he worked hard to keep his family connections from affecting his pursuit of historical truth, but balked at one thing.
"He would never touch Nat's sword," she said of the historical society's most prized artifact.
To reach ROB HEDELT: 540/374-5415 rhedelt@freelancestar.com