Nat Turner

<p>Nat Turner was born into chattel slavery on October 2, 1800, on the Southampton County plantation of Benjamin Turner in Virginia. Highly intelligent and taught to read and write at an early age—a rarity among enslaved people—Turner possessed profound religious fervor and was revered as a prophet and spiritual leader by fellow enslaved laborers.</p>
<p>Deeply steeped in Old Testament biblical prophecies of liberation and justice, Turner experienced a series of apocalyptic visions. Following a solar eclipse in February 1831 that he interpreted as a divine sign, Turner and six trusted companions launched an armed rebellion on the night of August 21, 1831. The insurgent force grew to over seventy enslaved and free Black men, moving from plantation to plantation to liberate enslaved people and strike at the institutional apparatus of human bondage.</p>
<p>The rebellion was suppressed within forty-eight hours by state militia and federal troops. Turner eluded capture for over six weeks, hiding in the woods of Southampton County before being discovered on October 30. While imprisoned, he dictated his accounts to local attorney Thomas Ruffin Gray, published as <em>The Confessions of Nat Turner</em>. Convicted of conspiracy to rebel, Turner was hanged in Jerusalem (now Courtland), Virginia, on November 11, 1831, meeting his death with impassive moral composure. His rebellion irrevocably shattered the antebellum planter myth that enslaved people were docile or contented with their bondage, polarizing national politics and accelerating the inexorable trajectory toward the American Civil War and the ultimate destruction of slavery.</p>