Nat Turner Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Nat Turner
BIRTH DATE: October 02, 1800
DEATH DATE: November 11, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH: Southampton County, Virginia
PLACE OF DEATH: Jerusalem, Virginia

Best Known For

Nat Turner was the leader of a violent and disorganized slave insurrection in Virginia that resulted in even harsher laws against slaves in that region.

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Nat Turner

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Synopsis

Nat Turner, born into slavery October 2, 1800, on a Southampton County plantation, became a preacher who claimed he;d been chosen by God to lead slaves from bondage. On August 21, 1831, he led a violent, disorganized insurrection. He hid for six weeks but was eventually caught and later hanged. The incident ended the emancipation movement in that region and led to even harsher laws against slaves.

Profile

Leader of a slave insurrection. Born October 2, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. He 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 African-American slaves on Benjamin Turner's plantation and in his Southampton County neighbourhood, claiming that he was chosen by God to lead them from bondage.

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 slaves in the area. An insurrection was planned, aborted, and rescheduled for August 21, 1831, when he and six other slaves killed the Travis family, managed to secure arms and horses, and enlisted about 75 other slaves in a disorganized insurrection that resulted in the murder of 51 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 slaves, 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.