Nat Turner Rebellion: A Major Turning Point In History

Slavery in America was taking place from when the European’s settled to the civil war. Slave owners encouraged slaves to be very religious, not for the good of religion but so that they can focus on doing well in this life they will be rewarded in their next life. There were many slave rebellions and uprisings against their owners. Some of the rebellions were so insignificant that word never got around, others like the Nat Turner Rebellion changed history, especially because it was based on what God told Turner. This rebellion was a major turning point in history because; of the amount of slave owners killed, showing that slaves have the ability to be violent putting constant fear for every white family in the south. Turner described to the journalist, “I was intended for some great purpose” (Gray, page 7). He even described “Spirits” talking to him since a young age, today we would interpret this as schizophrenia, defined as “People with the disorder may hear voices or see things that aren’t
One of the many casualties was the amount of people that were murdered by Nat Turner and his army, without knowing how many people he killed it totaled to an amount of fifty-five (Gray, page 22). After this uprising the slave’s laws in the South became a lot stricter, because of the fear of another mass murder, when most thought this would force a different outcome. Foner say, “Instead od moving toward emancipation, the Virginia legislature of 1832 decided to fasten more tightly the chains of bondage” Free blacks or slaves were now not aloud to serve as preachers, not able to own a firearms or weapons, and now definitely were not giving a chance to learn to read. Many slave states followed in Virginia’s footsteps after this, not giving slaves another major chance to have another