Since Styron grew up in the Tidewater region in Virginia, where Nat Turn er's 1831 slave rebellion took place, and came from a family who at one time owned slaves, he was always aware that someday he would write about the all-engulfing issues of race, slavery, and the polarized society they produced. In the 1960s issues of racism and civil rights nearly monopolized and enflamed the public and political debate at the time which produced such laws as the Voting Rights Act of 1964. Styron has always been aware of the violent relationship between history and the individual and saw Nat Turner as one more victim of social repression and systematic bondage.