Who’s to Doomsay?

PETER: Well, Gribbin’s story is fascinating, Brian, because in many ways it’s anticipated in the 17th and 18th century. And the class of people were talking about are the clergy, who have a monopoly on interpretation. And they’re also the first scientists, in a way. Or what they call in this period natural philosophers.

So the balancing act that they need to achieve is, on the one hand, what do portents tell us? Yet at the same time, they’re coming up with more rational explanations, because comets’ trajectories are being tracked over the decades and centuries. And these are the people who are on top of the new natural philosophy.

So this is the high wire act of interpretation that we have. And it becomes apart, I think, Ed, wouldn’t you say?

ED: Well, I was going to ask you a question. I’ve listen to the BackStory enough to know that following this period comes the American Revolution.

PETER: Yeah, exactly.

ED: I’ve heard that from you. And that the Revolution is sort of a part of the era of the Enlightenment. So was there a vision of the end of the world in the Enlightenment? And who would have had the authority to say that there was, or was not?

PETER: I think it’s really the end of the kind of authority that the intellectual, clerical elite would once have. And I think there’s a real democratization which is unleashed by the collapse of hierarchical authority.

ED: And, Peter, in many ways, the ultimate expression of this democratization of ownership of the apocalypse is Nat Turner, who led the largest slave revolt in American history in Virginia in 1831. And after he’s captured and imprisoned, he is questioned by an attorney who ends up making a lot of money by publishing Nat Turner’s confessions.

But Nat Turner tells him what’s in his mind. And what’s in his mind are these visions of the end of the world. Let’s listen to what he says.

VOICE-OVER FOR NAT TURNER: I saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle. And the sun was darkened. The thunder rolled in the heavens and blood flowed in streams. And I heard a voice saying, such is your luck, such you are called to see. And let it come a rough or smooth, you must surely bear it. It was plain to me that the Savior was about to lay down the yoke He had borne for the sins of men, and the great day of judgment was at hand.

ED: So here is an enslaved man, reading the Holy Scripture, and seeing signs of racial struggle, seeing the signs of Christ’s coming, and decided, especially after a second solar eclipse, possibly caused by ash from Mount St. Helens– it happened in August– and he takes that as the final sign and began his rebellion a week or so later.

BRIAN: So guys, what strikes me is this constant tension between the unleashing of every man who can interpret these signs for himself, this is unleashed by Peter’s Revolution. And in some ways, it reaches a high point with Nat Turner. Yet, I know, certainly by my century, there are real efforts to fold this back into the hands of safer experts, government authorities.

ED: Yeah, even in the time of Nat Turner, Brian, the white newspapers immediately seized the authority. And they said Turner was, quote, “misled by some hallucination of his imaginative spirit of prophecy.” So as soon as Nat Turner evokes the ultimate truth of the Bible as his inspiration, the white people of Virginia are seizing it back and saying he’s misled.

PETER: This is a great period of interpretation. But the authority to interpret is really up in the air, almost literally in the air. You’re reading it in the sky.

ED: It’s the reading that’s the key, Peter, because if he had not been allowed to read, if he had not been allowed to have direct access to the visions of the apocalypse in the Bible, then he would not have been able to see it in the world around him. So the very spirit of democratization, even unto enslaved people, sort of unleashes the authority for everybody to decide for themselves when the world’s going to end.

[MUSIC – FREDERICK WHEELER, “IF THE WORLD SHOULD END TOMORROW”]

BRIAN: Well, folks, the end really is near. We’re out of time today. But you can get all sorts of firsthand sources and archival photos at our website, backstoryradio.org. We’re also on Facebook and Tumblr. We Tweet at BackStoryRadio.

PETER: We’ll be back next week, we hope. And we hope you will be, too. Don’t be a stranger.

ED: Today’s episode of BackStory was produced by Jess Engebretson, Giochi Iansin, Eric Mennel, and Allison Quantz. Jamal Milner is our technical director. Alan Chin is our intern. Our Senior Producer is Tony Field. And back BackStory’s Executive Producer is Andrew Wyndham.

PETER: Special thanks today to Brenden Riley and to Daniel Wojcik, who’s book, The End of the World as We Know It helped us out with our bit on doomsday devices.

ED: Thanks also to our team of voice-over actors, Peter Hedlin, Brendan Wolf, Bill Kissel, John Meadows, Ben Prorock, Bettina Stevens, Paul Stevens, and Chris Waite.

BRIAN: Major support for BackStory is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the University of Virginia, Weinstein Properties, an anonymous donor, and the History Channel, history made every day.

[MUSIC – FREDERICK WHEELER, “IF THE WORLD SHOULD END TOMORROW”]

JESS ENGEBRETSON: Peter Onuf and Brian Balogh are professors in the University of Virginia’s Corcoran Department of History. Ed Ayers is President and Professor of History at the University of Richmond. BackStory was created by Andrew Wyndham for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.