Nat Turner Rebellion

Nat Turner was born in Southampton, Virginia, on October 2, 1800, the son of slaves. He was the property of Benjamin Turner, a prosperous plantation owner. His mother and grandmother had been brought to America from Africa and he had a deep hatred of slavery. Nat grew up sharing his mother's view of slavery. Taught to read by his master's son, Nat developed deep religious beliefs and, encouraged by his parents, gradually began to believe that God had chosen him to lead his people out of slavery. In 1831 Turner was sold to Joseph Travis. In February of that year an eclipse of the sun convinced Turner that this was a supernatural sign from God to start an insurrection. However, it wasn't until August 21 that Turner and about seven other slaves killed Travis and his family and launched his rebellion. In all, about 50 whites were killed. Turner had hoped this his action would cause a massive slave uprising but only 75 joined his rebellion. Over 3,000 members of the state militia were sent to deal with Turner's rebellion and the rebellious slaves were soon defeated. Turner went into hiding but was captured six weeks later. Nat Turner was executed on November 11, 1831. In the aftermath, the state of Virginia executed 56 blacks accused of being part of Turner's slave rebellion. Two hundred blacks were also beaten and killed by white militias and mobs reacting with violence. Across Virginia and other southern states, state legislators passed new laws prohibiting education of slaves and free blacks, restricting rights of assembly and other civil rights for free blacks, and requiring white ministers to be present at black worship services.