Thomas Ruffin Gray

Thomas Ruffin Gray was born in Southampton County, Virginia in the early 1800s. He was the youngest of six children born to Thomas and Anne Cocke Brewer Gray. Gray's father was a both a slaveholder and a planter, a career Gray wished to pursue in his adulthood.[1]

Later in life, at the age of 21, Gray inherited 400 acres of land at the Round Hill plantation which kickstarted his tentative career as a planter. Several years later, Gray had built his own house on the property, bringing his property worth up to about $500. In 1829, he bought his recently deceased brother's property as well as a house on the Main Street in town, which supplied him with 800 acres of real property. Soon after, he married Mary A. Gray and, together, they had a daughter which they named Ann Douglas Gray.[2]

As a planter, Gray's status in society began to rise; however, simultaneously his family's fortunes began to sink. The years between 1822 and 1830 was a financially unstable time for his family, with his father and brother falling into debt. Gray attempted to provide financial assistance to his family but, in doing so, brought himself down into debt along with them. These financial struggles forced Gray to leave life as a planter behind and pursue a career in law.[3]

In 1834, Gray stated that he had studied law in his youth, however, there is no record of him going to college or attending a law school at any point in his life. Despite this, Gray had had passing experiences with the law that may have included an apprenticeship alongside his cousin in the county clerk's office as well as a run in with the law due to a public fight with one of his brothers. Then, in the year 1828 he became a Justice of the Peace and served as a magistrate in Southampton County for the first time.[4] Less than a year before Turner's uprising, in September 1830, Gray finally received his license to practice law.[5] A month later, in October, the magistrates certified his qualifications as an attorney and in December they admitted him to practice in court at which point Gray resigned as justice of the peace.[6]

Although Thomas Gray is commonly thought of as Nat Turner's lawyer, James Strange French is the person listed in official records as Turner's lawyer.[7] However, neither assertion is correct: William C. Parker was assigned by the court to represent Turner.[8][9]

In 1831, for 10 weeks following Turner's rebellion, Gray took it upon himself to do research on the events of the revolt, completely immersing himself in the factual details of the uprising. Gray partook in a military observation of the murders committed by the participants of the rebellion. During the observation, he found a survivor, a 12-year-old girl who gave him a recounting of her experiences of the events of the rebellion.[10]

Before Gray had the opportunity to interview Turner, he did a great deal of research on the rebellion including interviewing several other captured slaves who had partaken in Turner's rebellion and enlisting the help of several other law professionals in this endeavor.[11] One of the professionals Gray worked with was Theodore Trezevant, both of whom worked to compile a list of victims. Many errors were made in this endeavor, sometimes naming survivors on the list of the dead by accident.[12] In the end, there were 4 revised versions of the list over the course of 4 months. Remaining consistent in the number of victims, Gray said there was 55 white people killed in each of the 4 revisions of the list. In the final list, he was able to give the names of 18 of the deceased, supplying more names than any other person had.[13]

When the time came for Gray to interview Turner, Gray recorded his recollections of his life leading up to the rebellion, specifically, Turner's experiences with reading and writing, scientific experiments, prophecies and his spiritual influence on the neighborhood slaves.[14] Additionally, Gray transcribed Turner's confession as well as an account of Turner's motives and actions during the rebellion.[15] Once Gray's transcription was complete, he self-published Turner's confession as a pamphlet later in November 1831, titled The Confessions of Nat Turner. The writer was a slavery apologist.[16]

In the 1960s, William Styron published a fictional and controversial account of the Nat Turner rebellion using the same title as Gray's pamphlet, The Confessions of Nat Turner. Thomas Gray's pamphlet, the Confessions of Nat Turner, was the first document claiming to present Nat Turner's words regarding the rebellion and his life.

Although the pamphlet is a primary source, some historians and literary scholars have found bias in Gray's writing indicating that Gray may not have portrayed Turner's voice as accurately as he claimed to have done. Kenneth S. Greenberg, professor, and Chair of the History Department at Suffolk University explains in his book why Gray's pamphlet is not as reliable as one may think, cautioning readers to analyze the source with great care.[17] On the other hand, other scholars have extensively analyzed Gray's confession and have deemed it to be an, overall, reliable source. Christopher Tomlins, a professor in the Legal Studies department at UC Berkely's Law School, mentioned in an essay on the Confessions, that despite Gray's indirect transcription of Turner's words the source is a largely accurate narrative based on an extensive interview with the rebellion's leader.[18] Although, similar to Greenberg, Tomlins stressed the importance of caution in regard to using the confessions as historical evidence.