Talk:The Delectable Negro

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 16:35, 17 August 2020 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that The Delectable Negro describes how Nat Turner's body was turned into "medicinal" grease? Source: "Woodard carefully and compellingly links scenes of actual cannibalism—including the transformation of Nat Turner's body into “medicinal” grease (172)—to the starvation of slaves and to more metaphysical, parasitic relations that use the enslaved person’s body to fuel the construction of whiteness." –The American Historical Review

• Reviewed: Berry Boswell Brooks
• Comment: Request that this be held for August 21, when Nat Turner's rebellion began.

Created by Gobonobo (talk). Self-nominated at 03:13, 12 August 2020 (UTC).

• Reviewing this here. Comments below!

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy compliance:

• Adequate sourcing: - Generally well sourced, but the citation says it was "medicinal" grease with quotation marks, implying that it may not have actually been for that exact purpose.
• Neutral:
• Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook eligibility:

• Cited: - Hook says medicinal grease, but citation says "medicinal" grease-- the distinction seems to be important.
• Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: I think a slight tweak to this hook will get this there. Great work here. Nomader (talk) 04:49, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

@Nomader: Thanks. Sorry this is so macabre. I've added quotation marks to mirror the source. gobonobo ^{+ c} 17:48, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

No worries, thanks for making the change here. Approving this. Nomader (talk) 20:41, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

Medicinal grease?

The claim that Turner's body was 'turned into "medicinal" grease' doesn't appear anywhere in the Nat Turner's slave rebellion article. I don't have access to The American Historical Review - is this claim supported widely? JezGrove (talk) 21:12, 21 August 2020 (UTC)

@JezGrove: That his body was made into some kind of grease is, I think, widely supported. Other accounts suggest that it was used for soap or axle grease. Woodard supports the medicinal claim in a couple ways. He cites an editoral by J. S. Musgrave which quotes a text saying "Nat's body was boiled up, his oil saved and sold for a long period as a panacea for all ills and known as 'Nat’s grease.'" (p. 92) He also cites William Sydney Drewry who wrote in The Southhampton Insurrection (1900) that Turner's body was "delivered to doctors, who skinned it and made grease of the flesh. Mr. R. S. Barham’s father owned a money purse made of his hide." (p. 172) Drewry goes on to say that Blacks from the region swore off castor oil, concerned that it might be "old Nat's grease". gobonobo ^{+ c} 06:06, 24 August 2020 (UTC)

rumouur is now reliable i guess 2605:8D80:663:B1A3:2400:EDA:193:B54E (talk) 04:45, 21 October 2025 (UTC)

I found an article clipping from The Norfolk Virginian newspaper dated Thu, Oct 21, 1897 that stated the following.

“NAT TURNER'S SKELETON.

(From the Richmond Times.)

The general puble is not aware that the skeleton of old Nat Turner, the negro insurrectionist, who, in 1831. killed about fifty-five white people in

Southampton county, Va., is preserved and now in the possession cf Dr. H. U.

S)ephenson, at Toano. Dr. Stephenson received the skeleton from a son of Dr. S. B. Kellar. Dr. Kellar bought Nat's body, paying him $10 for it. The negro used his money in high living in Jail at Jerusalem.

After Turner was executed Dr. Kellar had the bones scraped and strung, and they have been used by medical students frequently since, Dr. Stephenson being the last.” ~2026-86704 (talk) 07:38, 5 January 2026 (UTC)