Short Profile of Nat Turner, 1800 -1831

By Marsha Prescod

Nat Turner, 1800 -1831, was an African-American slave who led the largest and most significant slave revolt in United States history. He was, significantly, born five days before the execution of the African American slave Gabriel Prosser, leader of another famous slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia. Turner's father, also a slave, successfully escaped and is believed to have spent his life with other escaped African Americans, as part of a fugitive group living in swamp lands. (Slaves escaping to live in fugitive societies were known as Maroons). His mother was born in Africa and kidnapped and brought to the US in 1793. She taught him he would be great. From both parents he acquired a belief in freedom. He learned to read in boyhood (often barred to slaves under threat of mutilation). He became a Christian in his youth, became a preacher, and had visions throughout his life. In 1821 he ran away from his owners, and before he was captured had a vision of leading a slave rebellion. For 5 years from 1825 he preached to black congregations in Southampton County, Virginia.

Traveling from church to church allowed Turner to gather the knowledge he needed to organize his revolt, such as road locations and hiding places. In 1831 he took an eclipse of the sun as a signal that the time had come for him to launch his slave rebellion. He convinced four other slaves to join him, and they made plans to begin the uprising on July 4.

Due to Turner falling ill the revolt started after midnight on August 22. The uprising began at the Travis home, where Turner was a slave, where the rebels killed everyone in the household. Turner initially intended to move from house to house urging other slaves to join the rebellion. The plan was to get to Jerusalem, Virginia, the Southampton County capital where there was an arsenal, that if captured would allow the insurgents to arm themselves adequately.

As the band moved from house to house, more and slaves joined the rebellion and when the local militia met them it retreated. When the slave army stopped at a place called James Parker's farm for fresh recruits and supplies, the militia, which had regrouped, struck again. Turner attempted to rally his troops, who were armed with knives, hatchet and axes, reinforcements for the militia arrived- armed with guns - and killed over 100 rebels. Turner escaped, avoiding capture for months until October 30. Nat Turner was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. He was hanged and skinned on November 11, 1831. His corpse was mutilated and various body parts were kept by whites as souvenirs. While awaiting execution, he told his story to his court-appointed lawyer, Thomas Gray. The result was a book which Gray published as Nat Turner's Confessions. In the aftermath of the rebellion, hundreds of blacks were tortured and murdered by hysterical mobs in Virginia. A repressive policy against slaves and free blacks was instituted in the state. Turner became a potent symbol to slaves throughout the South.

Additional links:
The confessions of Nat Turner, the leader of the late insurrection in Southampton, VA.: Electronic Edition
"as fully and voluntarily made to Thomas R. Gray in the prison where he was confined, and acknowledged by him to be such when read before the court of Southampton; with the certificate, under seal of the court convened at Jerusalem, Nov. 5, 1831, for his trial. Also, an authentic account of the whole insurrection, with lists of the whites who were murdered, and of the negroes brought before the court of Southhampton, and there sentenced, &c.
Baltimore: Published by Thomas R. Gray. Lucas & Deaver, print. 1831.", "... SIR,--You have asked me to give a history of the motives which induced me to undertake the late insurrection, as you call it--To do so I must go back to the days of my infancy, and even before I was born...."