Numbering all the Bones

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (1967)

The Confessions of Nat Turner is a work of historical fiction that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1967. The first-person account of the 1831 Virginia slave revolt begins and ends in the prison where Nat Turner, an African American slave, was held before, during, and following his trial. Turner awaits execution as the leader of the two-day slave rebellion that started in Southampton County and ended with the death of approximately 55 whites—men, women, and children. Styron constructed the novel from the “testimony” recounted to the public by lawyer Thomas Gray, who is a character included within the novel. Jumping in and out of Turner’s memory, the narrative focuses on and complicates Turner’s imagined religious, ideological, and relational conundrums across his life.

• The Confessions of Nat Turner on SuperSummary

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (1979)

The 1979 novel Kindred was written by Octavia E. Butler, a Black author from California who wrote science fiction that challenged white hegemony. The novel tells the story of Edana “Dana” Franklin, a young Black woman in 1976 whose connection to a young White boy named Rufus Weylin allows her to time travel to 1800s Maryland.