In 1832, Thomas R. Gray published The Confessions of Nat Turner. Gray was able to interview Turner before he was executed, allowing us to get a look into who Turner was and why he did what he did. In the interview Turner reveals that from a young age the people around him, including his parents and grandmother, knew he was going to do something with a purpose. This was reassured for Turner when he had a prophecy from a Spirit and in that moment knew that he was intended for some great purpose. One night the Spirit came to him and told him about a Serpent.
He started killing more frequently, 4 in just that year. The next of his victims was 33 year old Raymond Smith in May of 1990. His crime was the same, drugged and strangled him and then engaged in oral sex with the cadaver. He cut off his head and painted it and put it in his fridge and placed his bones around his apartment as decorations. A week later he did the same thing when he met 27 year old Eddie Smith.
Salvation on Sand Mountian The New Yorker stated that Salvation on Sand Mountain was “an extraordinary account of how a journalistic assignment evolved into a spiritual quest.” And I have to agree one hundred percent. Dennis Covington started off in the beginning of the book as an outsider to snake handling, and he ended up becoming an insider to this special way of worship. Mr. Covington was writing journal pieces for The New York Times, and he heard of the arrest of Glenn Summerford through a Birmingham newspaper. He told his editor about his story idea, and made his way Scottsboro, Alabama. Glenn Summerford was a preacher at The Church of Jesus with Signs Following, and he was “convicted and sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison for attempting to kill his wife with rattlesnakes” (Covington page 1).
In 1937, Malcolm was taken from his family by welfare caseworkers. By the time he reached high school age, he had dropped out of school and moved to Boston, where he became increasingly involved in criminal activities. In 1946, at the age of 21, Malcolm was sent to prison on a burglary conviction. It was there he encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose members are popularly known as Black Muslims. The Nation of Islam advocated black nationalism and racial separatism and condemned Americans of European descent as immoral "devils."
Throughout his life and up until the day he dies, Malcolm X tries to pursue this ultimate goal of seeing white racism in a positive light and making something good come out of the events that happened in his life. The four factors that greatly influenced Malcolm X to become a successful activist were his family life, growing up and living in an urban ghetto environment, prison, and his religion. The horrific events of Malcolm’s childhood would have led anyone else to a depression and a downfall. However, these events sparked his reasoning for becoming a successful activist. When Malcolm Little was in the womb, members of the Ku Klux Klan broke all the windows in his family’s home in Omaha, Nebraska.
On August 21, 1831, a slave insurrection, led by Nat Turner, broke out in Southampton, Virginia. Taking up weapons, the slaves killed all the whites in all the households they came across indiscriminately, many of which were women and children. The body count amounted to more than sixty whites by noon of the next day. Most participants in the rebellion were either killed on the spot, or arrested, put on trial, and hanged. Nat Turner himself managed to evade capture until late October.
After the research was no more need of use, McCoy evacuated the Hygienic Laboratory and began to kill the experiment animals. This would contain and prevent another disastrous outbreak. A few months later when everything is contained congress grants the Hygienic Laboratory with a new name, The National Institute of Health. This epidemic brought disease and catastrophe. Parrot Fever spread throughout America, and eventually brought death to one of five people that were infected.” There were a total of a hundred and sixty-nine cases of psittacosis nationwide.
Early on, Malcolm X was aware of racism. As a young child, he recalled his house being burned down and his father being murdered by a white supremacy group called the Black Legion. As a teenager and young adult he witnessed and lived the impoverished hustler life on the streets of Harlem. While in jail, he was introduced to Elijah Muhammad’s church, the Nation of Islam, which preached for the advancement of black men and the evil of white supremacy. Upon release, Malcolm X rapidly gained prominence in the Nation of Islam and traveled the United States, founding new mosques in many cities.
(Ramsland, 2008). On February 29, 1993, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. After the raid, four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians were killed. The Branch Davidians were then immediately charged with murder, thus beginning a 51-day siege. On April 19th, 1993, the siege ended in a fire which destroyed
As a young man he moved to Whydah, a small town in southern Benin, to work the corn and cassava fields. During the fall of the Oyo Empire, he was one of the millions of Africans abducted and sold into slavery. As a young child, I remember the countless hours listening attentively to his story on what took place on that muggy and humid night in Whydah. The African traders came in, raiding the town of Whydah with gunfire vigorously capturing his people and most of his tribe. “Whydah is being attacked by pirate ships!” yelled the town crier, as the drums beat loudly.