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Nat Turner

1800 - 1831

Name: Nat Turner

Abolitionist Involvement: In May, 1828, Nat Turner had a vision which told him to "arise and prepare myself, and slay my enemies with their own weapons." In February, 1831, Turner saw an eclipse of the sun and felt the time for a slave rebellion was nearing. By August, Nat believed the time had come and shortly after midnight on August 22, 1831, began one of the most famous slave rebellions in history, which sent shock waves throughout the South. The rebellion lasted two days. In the end, Turner's master was killed along with nearly 60 other whites. Nat Turner was hung in Jerusalem, Virginia on November 11, 1831.

Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in 1831 was the culmination of some two hundred years of rebellions and plots against slavery by blacks in America. At the National Convention of Colored Citizens held in Buffalo, New York, in 1843, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet said, "The patriotic Nathaniel Turner followed Denmark Veazie (Vesey). He was goaded to desperation by wrong and injustice. By despotism, his name has been recorded on the list of infamy, and future generations will remember him among the noble and brave."

Family: Wife: Cherry Mother: Nancy Paternal Grandmother: Bridget





Publications/Reference: "Confessions of Nat Turner " taken down by Thomas Gray. Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century edited by Leon Litwick & August Meier. University of Illinois Press, 1988. The Black 100 - The Ranking of the Most Influential African Americans Past and Present by Columbus Salley. A Citadel Press Book 1993.

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