Perversion the Social Relation

i8oMichael P. Biblerand un-Christian social apparatus. If Brantley subscribed to the notionof white supremacy, he would never approach Nat with this kind of request,and he would deserve wrath instead of grace. Therefore, whenNat agrees to baptize him, he is not making a gesture of pity so muchas acknowledging the significance of Brantley's position in society.Nat's identification with Brantley is further evident in the manner inwhich he baptizes the white man. Again emphasizing the communal natureof baptism, Nat tells Brantley, "We will be baptized together in theSpirit" (315). Brantley is the only other person besides Willis that Nattells about baptizing in the novel, and both baptisms are significant inthat Nat builds a community of sameness with each man "together in theSpirit." Nat may not like Brantley personally, but he is still willing to accepthim into his symbolic religious community. Moreover, at the actualscene of the baptism, Nat's sense of a shared community with Brantleygrows even beyond his identification with Brantley's outlaw statusand his avowal of their sameness in the eyes of God. When the two menwade into the water of the pond, a "mob of forty or fifty poor whitepeople" begins pelting the two men with "stones and sticks from fallentrees" (319). Their hateful reaction underscores the opposition betweenthe dominant community—which Nat codes as morally and spirituallylost through the people's use of "fallen" materials—and the less judgmentalcommunity that he is working to create. Then, immersing himselfin the millpond, Nat again experiences a transcendent moment that remindshim not only of his devotion to building a spiritual community,but also of his attempt to build a literal community through his violentinsurrection: "I immersed myself with a prayer, then rose. Beyond thewhite faces blooming dimly on the far bank, heat lightning whooshedup in faint green sheets. Dusk had come down like the shadow of a greatwing. I felt a sharp premonition of my own death. 'Brantley,' I said aswe struggled back through the water toward my followers on the bank,'Brantley, I advise you to leave the county soon, because the white peopleare going to be destroyed'" (319). By telling Brantley to leave beforethe insurrection, Nat clearly decides that killing him would be wrong orunnecessary. Brantley is already an outcast from the white communityand personally has no stake in preserving the hierarchies that have shuthim out as a sodomite. After the rebellion, when Nat has completelydestroyed the idea of racial difference by destroying the fact of racial dif-