Childhood imagery
Turner explains the enthusiasm which drove him to be a champion of insurrection. According to Tuner, his buoyancy was motivated by his childhood aspirations and interests. Turner recalls, "In my childhood, a circumstance occurred which made an indelible impression on my mind and laid the groundwork of that enthusiasm, which has terminated so fatally to many, both white and black, and for which I am about to atone at the gallows. It is here necessary to relate this circumstance—trifling as it may seem, it was the commencement of that belief which has grown with time, and even now, sir, in this dungeon, helpless and forsaken as I am, I cannot divest myself of."
Hearing imagery
Turner’s vision is illustrated using hearing imagery. The author writes, “And on the 12th of May, 1828, I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last, and the last should be first.”
Sight imagery
The narrator reads Turner's mind by looking at him directly at the face, and this gesture compelled him to be more precise and truthful. The narrator says, “When I questioned him as to the insurrection in North Carolina happening about the same time, he denied any knowledge of it; and when I looked him in the face as though I would search his inmost thoughts, he replied, 'I see sir, you doubt my word; but can you not think the same ideas and strange appearances about this time in the heavens might prompt others, as well as myself, to this undertaking.”
