Turner, Nat, 1800–1831, American slave, leader of the Southampton Insurrection (1831), b. Southampton co., Va. Deeply religious from childhood, Turner was a natural preacher and possessed some influence among local slaves. Apparently believing himself divinely appointed to lead fellow slaves to freedom, he plotted a revolt with a band of approximately 60 followers. After killing the family of Turner's owner, the band ravaged the neighborhood, in two days killing a total of 55 white people, mostly women and children. The revolt was soon crushed, however, and 13 slaves and three free blacks were hanged immediately. Turner himself escaped to the woods, but was captured six weeks later and hanged. Dozens more blacks were also killed in retaliation. The abortive uprising, by far the bloodiest and most serious in the history of slavery in the United States, led to more stringent slave laws in the South and to an end of the organized abolition movement there. Over the years, Turner became a figure of controversy, seen by some as a vicious fanatic and by others as a hero of black resistence.

Bibliography

See studies by H. Aptheker (1943 and 1968), E. Foner (1971), J. Duff and P. Mitchell, ed. (1971), K. S. Greenberg, ed. (2003), and S. French (2004); C. Burnett, dir., Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (documentary film, 2004).

Turner, Nat

(born Oct. 2, 1800, Southampton county, Va., U.S.—died Nov. 11, 1831, Jerusalem, Va.) U.S. insurrectionist. Born into slavery, he became convinced of his mission to lead American slaves out of bondage and developed a scheme to capture the armoury at Jerusalem, Va. He took an eclipse of the sun as a sign to act (1831) and began his insurrection by killing his master's family. He led 75 slaves as they killed about 60 whites on a two-day march to Jerusalem. About 3,000 state militia and local whites defeated the insurrectionists, who were captured or killed. Turner eluded arrest for six weeks but was found, tried, and hanged. Alarmed by the uprising, Southern states passed legislation forbidding the education, movement, or assembly of slaves.

Turner, Nat (1800–31) leader of slave insurrection; born in Southampton County, Va. 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 (in the 1820s), he became a fiery preacher and leader of African-American slaves on Benjamin Turner's plantation and in his Southampton County, Va., neighborhood, claiming that he was chosen by God to lead them from bondage. Believing in signs and hearing divine voices, he 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; then, on August 21–22, 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 only the murder of 51 white people. Afterwards, he hid nearby successfully for six weeks until his discovery, conviction, and hanging at Jerusalem, Va., 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 slaveholders and free-soilers that would culminate in the Civil War.