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
Ambox current red.svg

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]
Part of a series on
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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
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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