Nat turner biography wikipedia

Nathaniel "Nat" Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an Americanslave and Christianpreacher.

He believed God gave him visions. When he was 21 years old, Nat Turner escaped from his master Samuel Turner following in his father's footsteps and hid in the woods. 30 days later he had a vision telling him to "return”. Turner thought an eclipse in February 1831 was a sign from God to plan a slave rebellion. The rebellion happened in Southampton County, Virginia on August 21, 1831. He wasn’t that far from the North Carolina border. Seventy black people took part. Some of these people were free, and others were slaves. After Turner and his fellow slaves killed his master and his family, they took their horses, firearms, hatchets and knives; and continued on with their liberation.

The Governor had scheduled about three thousand militiamen to stop the rebellion. The violent rebellion lasted two days until soldiers finally ended it, but Turner escaped. He hid for 6 weeks to avoid being killed. He was found on October 30. Turner was executed on November 11 by hanging. He was skinned. At least 55 white people were killed in the rebellion. The state executed 55 people, but acquitted a few. 200 black people were killed by groups of white people. Slaves as far away as North Carolina were said to be connected with the rebellion. Many were tried and executed. Because of the rebellion, new laws were made in Virginia. People could not bring black people together to teach them how to read and write. Nat Turner was an American Hero.

References

Early Life

Turner was born on the Virginia plantation of Benjamin Turner, who allowed him to be instructed in reading, writing, and religion. Sold three times in his childhood and hired out to John Travis (1820s), he became a fiery preacher and leader of enslaved Africans on Benjamin Turner’s plantation and in his Southampton County neighborhood, claiming that he was chosen by God to lead them from bondage.

Insurrection

Believing in signs and hearing divine voices, Turner was convinced by an eclipse of the sun (1831) that the time to rise up had come, and he enlisted the help of four other enslaved men in the area. An insurrection was planned, aborted, and rescheduled for August 21,1831, when he and six others killed the Travis family, managed to secure arms and horses, and enlisted about 75 other enslaved people in a large but disorganized insurrection that resulted in the murder of an estimated 55 white people.

Afterwards, Turner hid nearby successfully for six weeks until his discovery, conviction, and hanging at Jerusalem, Virginia, along with 16 of his followers. The incident put fear in the heart of Southerners, ended the organized emancipation movement in that region, resulted in even harsher laws against enslaved people, and deepened the schism between slave-holders and free-soilers (an anti-slavery political party whose slogan was ‘free soil, free speech, free labor, and free men’) that would culminate in the Civil War.

Nat Turner is widely regarded as one of the most complex figures in American history and American literature. October marks the anniversary both of his birth and of his arrest as the leader of one of the United States' most famous slave rebellions.

Nat Turner was born October 2, 1800 on a plantation in Southampton County, Virginia. Turner was deeply committed to his Christian faith and believed he received messages from God through visions and signs in nature. When he was in his early 20s, these signs led him to return to his master after an escape attempt. Similarly, a solar eclipse and an unusual atmospheric event are believed to have inspired his insurrection, which began on August 21, 1831.

Nat Turner's rebellion was one of the bloodiest and most effective in American history. It ignited a culture of fear in Virginia that eventually spread to the rest of the South, and is said to have expedited the coming of the Civil War. In the immediate aftermath of the rebellion, however, many Southern states, including North Carolina, tightened restrictions on African Americans. Over the course of two days, dozens of whites were killed as Turner's band of insurrectionists, which eventually numbered over fifty, moved systematically from plantation to plantation in Southampton County. Most of the rebels were executed along with countless other African Americans who were suspected, often without cause, of participating in the conspiracy. Nat Turner, though, eluded capture for over two months. He hid in the Dismal Swamp area and was discovered accidentally by a hunter on October 30. He surrendered peacefully.

The Confessions of Nat Turner appeared shortly after Turner's capture. Published as the definitive account of the insurrection and its motivation, the "confession" remains shrouded in controversy. Thomas Gray, a lawyer, released the account, claiming that Turner had dictated the confessions to him and that there wa

(1800-1831)

Who Was Nat Turner?

Nat Turner was an enslaved person who became a preacher and made history as the leader of one of the bloodiest enslaved revolts in America on August 21, 1831. Following the insurrection, Turner hid for six weeks, but he was eventually caught and later hanged. The incident ended the emancipation movement in that region and led to even harsher laws against the enslaved. While Turner became an icon of the 1960s Black power movement, others have criticized him for using violence as a means of demanding change.

Early Life

Turner was born on October 2, 1800, in Southampton County, Virginia, on the plantation of Benjamin Turner. His mother was named Nancy, but nothing is known about his father. Turner’s owner, Benjamin, allowed him to be instructed in reading, writing and religion.

As a small child, Turner was thought to have some special talent because he could describe things that happened before he was even born. Some even remarked that he "surely would be a prophet," according to his later confession. His mother and grandmother told Turner that he "was intended for some great purpose." Turner was deeply religious and spent much of his time reading the Bible, praying and fasting.

Over the years, Turner worked on a number of different plantations. He ran away from Samuel Turner, his former owner's brother, in 1821. After 30 days of hiding in the woods, Turner came back to Samuel's plantation after he received what he believed to be a sign from God. After Samuel's death, Turner became the enslaved person of Thomas Moore and then the property of his widow. When she married John Travis, Turner went to work on Travis' lands.

Rebellion

On August 21, 1831, Turner and his supporters began a revolt against white owners with the killing of his owners, the Travis family.

Turner believed in signs and heard divine voices, and he had a vision in 1825 of a bloody conflict between Black and white spirits.