Nat Turner's Rebellion

Nat Turner was an African american slave born on October 2, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. Both of Nat’s parents were slaves, including his mother, who was born to be an African queen until she was kidnapped and sold as a slave in the U.S. While learning to read and write on his own, Nat started to read the bible, and became very religious. In 1821, Nat escapes the services of his master for thirty days, but returns after seeing the Holy spirit in a vision telling him to “Seek ye the kingdom of heaven”. During the 1820s, Turner’s master forced him into a “marriage” which at this time meant breeding the slaves and selling them to the deep south. When Turner’s master died, he was moved to a new home, where he grew even more religious, trying to find the significance of the message the spirit had given him. Soon after, Turner experienced a series of 5 more visions with the holy spirit he’d seen in his first vision. In 1830, Nat moved to the Travis household and saw yet another vision. Nat Turner stated, “ I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the spirit instantly appeared to me and said,” “...on the appearance of the sign, I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies.” The following year, turner witnessed an eclipse of the sun. He thought for sure that this was the sign of the Holy spirit, so he told 4 close friends about his visions and the rebellion he was planning. On August 14th, seven men, including Turner had set off killing white slave owners. As they killed more white people, they set free more slaves, and their militia grew bigger with more and more men.Turner’s rebellion ended up killing 55 white slave owners. After the “Holy War”, Turner disappears for 70 days, but is captured by an army set out to find Nat and his rebel’s. His men were ambushed and almost all of them killed by the army. Turner was hanged on November 11th,