The Confessions of Nat Turner

The final part of Nat’s story begins with a vision of sleeping in a boat on the ocean, “in the arms of a steadfast and illimitable peace” (407). He envisions the ocean “arching eastward toward Africa” (407). This is the same dream as the one with which he began the book, and in it again he approaches the mysterious building, which is “neither temple nor monument nor sarcophagus” (407). Knowing that he cannot comprehend the mystery of the building, he turns away from it.

To end the story, Nat wakes up once again:“The chains at [his] feet chink in the morning’s black silence” (408). He and Hark anticipate their deaths, wondering if they will be in a chair or hung. Nat appeals to God, “hoping to find some vision, some word or sign in the profounder darkness of [his] own mind” (409). He prepares to leave the world without a sign from God and without resolving the question of what he has accomplished. Hark, meanwhile, marvels at the fact that he will be hung that day while the world, even the barking dogs, goes on as usual.

Nat drifts off again and wakes up as the morning comes, when he hears “the sad old blast of a horn as it rouses up the Negroes for work” (410).