Nat Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an enslaved African-American preacher who led a four-

day rebellion of both enslaved and free black people in Southampton County, Virginia, beginning August 21,
1831. The rebellion caused the death of approximately 60 white men, women, and children. Whites organized
militias and called out regular troops to suppress the uprising. In addition, white militias and mobs attacked
blacks in the area, killing an estimated 120 men, women, and children,[2][3] many of whom were not involved
in the revolt.[4]

The rebels went from plantation to plantation, gathering horses and guns, freeing and recruiting others along
the way. During the rebellion, Virginia legislators targeted free blacks with a colonization bill, which allocated
new funding to remove them, and a police bill that denied free blacks trials by jury and made any free blacks
convicted of a crime subject to sale into slavery and relocation.[5]

In the aftermath, the state tried those accused of being part of Turner's slave rebellion: 18 were executed, 14
were transported out of state, and several were acquitted.[6] Turner hid successfully for two months. When
found, he was tried, convicted, sentenced to death, hanged, and possibly beheaded.[7] Across Virginia and
other Southern states, state legislators passed new laws to control slaves and free blacks. They prohibited
education of slaves and free blacks, restricted rights of assembly for free blacks, withdrew their right to bear
arms (in some states), and to vote (in North Carolina, for instance), and required white ministers to be present
at all black worship services. They also made criminal the possession of abolitionist publications by either
whites or blacks.

Contents

1 Early years

2 Rebellion

3 Capture and execution

4 Consequences

5 Legacy

5.1 Interpretations

6 Legacy and honors

6.1 In literature, film and music

7 See also

8 Notes

9 References
 10 Further reading

11 External links

Early years

Born into slavery on October 2, 1800,[1] in Southampton County, Virginia, Turner was recorded as "Nat" by
Benjamin Turner, the man who held his mother and him as slaves. When Benjamin Turner died in 1810, Nat was
inherited as property by Benjamin's son Samuel Turner.[5] For most of his life, he was known as "Nat", but after
the 1831 rebellion, he was widely referred to as "Nat Turner".[8] Turner knew little about the background of his
father, who was believed to have escaped from slavery when Turner was a young boy.[9]

Turner spent his entire life in Southampton County, a plantation area where slaves comprised the majority of
the population.[10] He was identified as having "natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension, surpassed
by few."[11] He learned to read and write at a young age. Deeply religious, Nat was often seen fasting, praying,
or immersed in reading the stories of the Bible.[12]

Turner's religious convictions manifested as frequent visions, which he interpreted as messages from God. His
belief in the visions was such that when Turner was 22 years old, he ran away from his owner; he returned a
month later after claiming to have received a spiritual revelation. Turner often conducted services, preaching
the Bible to his fellow slaves, who dubbed him "The Prophet". Turner garnered white followers such as
Etheldred T. Brantley, whom Turner was credited with having convinced to "cease from his wickedness".[13]

In early 1828, Turner was convinced that he "was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the
Almighty."[14] While working in his owner's fields on May 12, Turner said later that he

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.[15]

Joseph Dreis wrote: "In connecting this vision to the motivation for his rebellion, Turner makes it clear that he
sees himself as participating in the confrontation between God's Kingdom and the anti-Kingdom that
characterized his social-historical context."[16] He was convinced that God had given him the task of "slay[ing]
my enemies with their own weapons."[15] Turner said: "I communicated the great work laid out for me to do,
to four in whom I had the greatest confidence" – his fellow slaves Henry, Hark, Nelson, and Sam.[15]

Annular sun eclipse on February 12, 1831

Beginning in February 1831, Turner claimed certain atmospheric conditions as a sign to begin preparations for a
rebellion against slaveowners. On February 12, 1831, an annular solar eclipse was visible in Virginia. Turner
envisioned this as a black man's hand reaching over the sun.[17] He initially planned the rebellion to begin on
July 4, Independence Day. Turner postponed it because of illness and to use the delay for additional planning
with his co-conspirators. On August 7 there was another solar eclipse, in which the sun appeared bluish-green,
possibly the result of lingering atmospheric debris from an eruption of Mount St. Helens in present-day
Washington state. Turner interpreted this as the final signal, and about a week later, on August 21, he began the
uprising.[18]

Rebellion

Main article: Nat Turner's slave rebellion

Turner started with a few trusted fellow slaves. "All his initial recruits were other slaves from his
neighborhood".[19] The neighborhood men had to find ways to communicate their intentions without giving up
their plot. Songs may have tipped the neighborhood members to movements. "It is believed that one of the
ways Turner summoned fellow conspirators to the woods was through the use of particular songs."[20] The
rebels traveled from house to house, freeing slaves and killing the white people they found. The rebels
ultimately included more than 70 enslaved and free men of color.[21]

Because the rebels did not want to alert anyone to their presence as they carried out their attacks, they initially
used knives, hatchets, axes, and blunt instruments instead of firearms.[22] The rebellion did not discriminate by
age or sex, and members killed white men, women, and children.[23] Nat Turner confessed to killing only one
person, Margaret Whitehead, whom he killed with a blow from a fence post.[22]

Before a white militia could organize and respond, the rebels killed 60 men, women, and children.[24] They
spared a few homes "because Turner believed the poor white inhabitants 'thought no better of themselves
than they did of negros.'"[24][25] Turner also thought that revolutionary violence would serve to awaken the
attitudes of whites to the reality of the inherent brutality in slave-holding. Turner later said that he wanted to
spread "terror and alarm" among whites.[26]

Capture and execution

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This section needs to be updated. In particular: What did DNA testing of the skull find?. Please update this
article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (November 2017)

The rebellion was suppressed within two days, but Turner eluded capture by hiding in the woods until October
30. He was discovered by farmer Benjamin Phipps while hiding in a hole covered with fence rails. While
awaiting trial, Turner confessed his knowledge of the rebellion to attorney Thomas Ruffin Gray, who compiled
what he claimed was Turner's confession.[27] On November 5, 1831, Turner was tried for "conspiring to rebel
and making insurrection", convicted, and sentenced to death.[28][29] Turner was hanged on November 11 in
Jerusalem, Virginia. His body was flayed and beheaded as an example to frighten other would-be rebels.[7][30]
Turner received no formal burial; his headless remains were possibly buried in an unmarked grave.

In 2002, a skull said to have been Turner's was given to Richard G. Hatcher, the former mayor of Gary, Indiana,
for the collection of a civil rights museum he planned to build there. In 2016, Hatcher returned the skull to two
of Turner's descendants. If DNA tests confirm that the skull is Turner's, they will bury it in a family cemetery.[31]

Another skull said to have been Turner's was contributed to the College of Wooster in Ohio upon its
incorporation in 1866. When the school's only academic building burned down in 1901, the skull was saved by
Dr. H. N. Mateer. Visitors recalled seeing a certificate, signed by a physician in Southampton County in 1866,
that attested to the authenticity of the skull. The skull was eventually misplaced.[32]

In the aftermath of the insurrection, 45 slaves, including Turner, and five free blacks were tried for insurrection
and related crimes in Southampton. Of the 45 slaves tried, 15 were acquitted. Of the 30 convicted, 18 were
hanged while 12 were sold out of state. Of the five free blacks tried for participation in the insurrection, one
was hanged while the others were acquitted.[33] At least seven slaveowners sent legislative petitions for
compensation for the loss of their slaves without trials during or immediately after the insurrection. They were
all rejected.[34]

Soon after Turner's execution, Thomas Ruffin Gray published The Confessions of Nat Turner. His book was
derived partly from research Gray did while Turner was in hiding and partly from jailhouse conversations with
Turner before trial. This work is considered the primary historical document regarding Nat Turner, but some
historians believe Gray's portrayal of Turner is inaccurate.[35]

Consequences

In total, the state executed some 55 black people suspected of having been involved in the uprising. In the
hysteria of aroused fears and anger in the days after the revolt, white militias and mobs murdered an estimated
120 black people, many of whom had nothing to do with the rebellion.[2][3]

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The fear caused by Nat Turner's insurrection and the concerns raised in the emancipation debates that followed
resulted in politicians and writers responding by defining slavery as a "positive good".[36] Such authors
included Thomas Roderick Dew, a College of William & Mary professor who published a pamphlet in 1832
opposing emancipation on economic and other grounds.[37] In the period leading up to the American Civil War,
other Southern writers began to promote a paternalistic ideal of improved Christian treatment of slaves, in part
to avoid such rebellions. Dew and others believed that they were civilizing black people (who by this stage were
mostly American-born) through slavery.

Legacy

Interpretations
The massacre of blacks after the rebellion was typical of the pattern of white fears and overreaction to blacks
fighting for their freedom; many innocent blacks were killed in revenge. African Americans have generally
regarded Turner as a hero of resistance, who made slaveowners pay for the hardships they had caused so many
Africans and African Americans.[24]

James H. Harris, who has written extensively about the history of the black church, says that the revolt "marked
the turning point in the black struggle for liberation." According to Harris, Turner believed that "only a
cataclysmic act could convince the architects of a violent social order that violence begets violence."[38]

In the period soon after the revolt, whites did not try to interpret Turner's motives and ideas.[26] Antebellum
slaveholding whites were shocked by the murders and had their fears of rebellions heightened; Turner's name
became "a symbol of terrorism and violent retribution."[24]

In an 1843 speech at the National Negro Convention, Henry Highland Garnet, a former slave and active
abolitionist, described Nat Turner as "patriotic", saying that "future generations will remember him among the
noble and brave."[39] In 1861 Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a northern writer, praised Turner in a seminal
article published in Atlantic Monthly. He described Turner as a man "who knew no book but the Bible, and that
by heart who devoted himself soul and body to the cause of his race."[40]

In the 21st century, writing after the September 11 attacks in the United States, William L. Andrews drew
analogies between Turner and modern "religio-political terrorists". He suggested that the "spiritual logic"
explicated in Confessions of Nat Turner warrants study as "a harbinger of the spiritualizing violence of today's
jihads and crusades."[26]

Legacy and honors

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Nat Turner as one of the 100 Greatest African Americans.[41]

In 2009, in Newark, New Jersey, the largest city-owned park to be built was named Nat Turner Park, in his
honor. The facility cost $12 million in construction.[42]

In 2012, the small Bible that belonged to Turner was donated to the National Museum of African American
History and Culture by the Person family of Southampton, Virginia.[43]

In literature, film and music

This article appears to contain trivial, minor, or unrelated references to popular culture. Please reorganize this
content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture, providing citations to reliable, secondary sources,
rather than simply listing appearances. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2018)

The Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, a slave narrative by an escaped slave, refers to the rebellion.

Thomas R. Gray's 1831 pamphlet account, The Confessions of Nat Turner, based on his jailhouse interview
with Turner, is reprinted here (pdf).

Harriet Beecher Stowe included a copy of Turner's confessions as an appendix to her 1855 novel Dred: A Tale
of the Great Dismal Swamp. The title character is an escaped slave and religious zealot who aids fellow slave
refugees and spends most of the novel plotting a slave rebellion. He is a composite of Nat Turner and Denmark
Vesey.[44]

William Cooper Nell wrote an account of Turner in his history book The Colored Patriots of the American
Revolution, 1855.

Harriet Ann Jacobs, also an escaped slave, refers to Turner in her 1861 narrative, Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl.

Robert Hayden, 'The Ballad of Nat Turner', in A Ballad of Remembrance, 1962, 1966.[45]

The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), a novel by William Styron, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1968.
[46] It prompted much controversy, with some criticizing a white author writing about such an important black
figure. Several critics described it as racist and "a deliberate attempt to steal the meaning of a man's life."[47]
These responses led to cultural discussions about how different peoples interpret the past and whether any one
group has sole ownership of any portion.

In response to Styron's novel, ten African-American writers published a collection of essays, Willian Styron's
The Confessions of Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond (1968). The second edition was published in 1998
under the title The Second Crucifixion of Nat Turner.[48]

Nat Turner's Rebellion is featured in Episode 5 of the 1977 TV miniseries Roots. It is historically inaccurate, as
the episode is set in 1841[49] and the revolt took place in 183