NAT TURNER'S SLAVE REBELLION
Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion refers to a slave revolt that occurred in 1831 in Virginia. Nat Turner was an African American slave that led the rebellion, which lasted for four days and led to the deaths of dozens of people. As a historical event, Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion is significant to the history of slavery in the United States and the American Civil War. This is because, the Civil War erupted just three decades later with slavery being one of the major issues of the time.
Nat Turner organizing the slave rebellion. (1880)
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Slavery in the United States
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SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES
As stated above, the history of slavery in the United States was significant to the events of Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion. Slavery in the United States existed from the period of Colonial America in the early 17th century until the events of the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 until 1865. Throughout this timeframe, many slaves were brought from Africa to the territory of the United States via the Atlantic Slave Trade. Many of these slaves ended up working on plantations and households across the United States, and played a significant role in the production of certain goods. However, slavery in the United States came into question in the 19th century due to the growth of the American Abolitionist Movement. The American Abolitionist Movement is the name for the advancements made in the United States towards ending the practise of slavery. For instance, the term ‘abolition’ means to stop or end something. As such, an abolitionist is someone who was working to ban slavery.
WHO WAS NAT TURNER?
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Nat Turner was born on October 2nd, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. He was born into slavery and lived on a plantation owned by Benjamin Turner. At birth, he was simply known as ‘Nat’ and took the last name ‘Turner’ later in life when he led the 1831 slave rebellion. As a young child, Nat was known to be smart and learned to read with little difficulty. As well, he was a deeply religious person and spent much of his time reading the Bible. In fact, it has been noted that Nat believed he had received visions or messages from God. This was an important part of Nat Turner’s story, as it was these visions that ultimately inspired him to lead a slave revolt. In fact, according to Thomas Ruffin Gray, Nat believed that he "was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty". Gray was a lawyer who interviewed Nat during his time in prison following the 1831 rebellion. Supposedly, Nat became convinced that God would send him a message that would lead him to "slay my enemies with their own weapons". As such, following a solar eclipse, which occurred on February 12th in 1831, Nat began planning a slave revolt in the plantations around Southampton County, Virginia.
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Nat Turner
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NAT TURNER'S SLAVE REBELLION
Throughout the Spring of 1831, Nat Turner planned for the eventual rebellion. He did this by recruiting other slaves in the area to gain support from several different plantations. There was another solar eclipse on August 7th, which Turner interpreted as another and final signal for him to begin the revolt. As such, two weeks later on August 21st, the rebellion began.
Woodcut of Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion from 1831. It shows several different scenes related to the major events of the slave rebellion.
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In total, it is believed that Turner had the support of approximately 70 or so others in the rebellion. The others involved in the rebellion included fellow slaves and a few free black men who also assisted. At the start of the rebellion, Turner and the others travelled throughout the region and freed any other slaves they encountered. At the same time, the men killed any of the white people that they came across, including women and children, by using knives, axes, and other similar style weapons. In the end, it is believed that Nat Turner and the rebels killed approximately 60 white people before they were stopped.
The rebellion ended on the morning of August 23rd, when local militia and men from both the USS Natchez and USS Warren confronted the rebels on a slave plantation in Virginia. The rebellion had lasted for four days, and while not sparking a larger revolt among slaves, it created a deep sense of fear in white people throughout regions of the United States. Turner managed to escape and avoid capture for the next six weeks.
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AFTERMATH OF NAT TURNER'S SLAVE REBELLION
As stated above, while Nat Turner was on the run following the slave rebellion, many white people across the region became paranoid and fearful that more slaves were going to revolt. This led to many deaths of slaves following the slave rebellion. In fact, 56 African Americans that were determined to have participated in the rebellion were executed and another 120 were killed due to fear that another rebellion was possible. Furthermore, rumors spread throughout the area and caused mobs of white people to attack African Americans without cause. In the years that followed, many states passed Black Codes in an attempt to control black populations. For instance, slaves were limited in their ability to learn and were often forbidden from reading and writing.
As stated above, Nat Turner avoided capture following the militia’s raid on the slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. He didn’t leave the area though and was discovered six weeks later hiding among a local Native American tribe in the woods of Virginia. Turner was imprisoned and put on trial for his role in the rebellion. While in prison, his account of the rebellion was document by lawyer Thomas Ruffin Gray, which allows modern historians to have insight into why Turner carried out the actions that he did. The book that Gray published was titled ‘The Confessions of Nat Turner’. Nat Turner was tried and executed for carrying out the slave rebellion of 1831. He was executed by hanging on November 11th, 1831 in Jerusalem, Virginia.
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