Littératures et Civilisations Américaines
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This article posits Nat Turner’s rebellion and Samory Toure’s resistance to French colonialism as cases of successful military strategies utilized by a subaltern group against a supposedly stronger enemy. Indeed, Toure’s scorched earth strategy gave him a psychological victory over the French. In the case of Nat Turner, the white slavocracy, along with some scholars, ignored the type of war and the type of victory the enslaved Black man aimed at, and that prevented them from perceiving Turner’s revolt as a victory. This paper recognizes Turner as a brilliant war strategist who knew that he was disadvantaged at many levels, but who used an unexpected weapon against his enemy. By doing so, Turner privileged a battlefield his enemy was not familiar with. The Black leader actually waged a psychological war, and there is evidence that he won over the slaveholding system. Indeed, the trauma and the paranoia that ensued among White people, the cruel legislation against slavery and the Emancipation act many years later are proofs of the psychological ascendency this African war strategist and his army won over the whole system of slavery. Turner’s legacy could inspire African leaders today who face the evil of terrorism.