The story lives because it’s relevant today to questions of how to organize for change.” He has a kind of radical consciousness that to this day troubles advocates of a racially reconciled society. “To accept Nat Turner and place him within the pantheon of American revolutionary heroes is to sanction violence as a means of social change. For example, historian Scot French told The New York Times: Nat Turner has been considered a patriot by some and Molefi Kete Asante listed him as on of the “100 Greatest African Americans.” Others have noted his violence and slaughtering of many. Some states banned the possession of abolitionist publications, and in emancipation debates around the time of the rebellion and subsequently, slavery was defined by some as a positive good. One of the repercussions of the Nat Turner Slave Rebellion was that it led to a series of oppressive legislation that prohibited many slave activities, including education, movement and assembly. Nat’s slave rebellion appears to be the only United States one that was effective and sustained. I discovered drops of blood on the corn as though it were dew from heaven.” “I had a vision … I saw white and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened … the thunder rolled in the heavens and flowed in the streams. One alleged statement of the vision that appears in the pamphlet was: Whatever its accuracy, nothing more detailed exists. Turner’s attorney during the trial, Thomas Ruffin Gray, wrote The Confessions of Nat Turner: The Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Va., a pamphlet that some have dismissed as not being accurate. Less than a week later, Nat Turner was hanged at Jerusalem, Virginia, his body flayed as an example to anyone who might be thinking of rebellion. Turner was tried and was convicted and sentenced to death on November 5, 1831. The rebellion lasted only a few days, but Nat avoided capture until October 30, when a farmer discovered him hiding. In order to suppress the rebellion, whites formed militias and they in turn killed approximately 200 black people, including men, women and children, many of whom had no connection to the rebellion. The rebellion led by Nat Turner led to the death of almost 60 white people, including men, women and children. ![]() Governor John Floyd received a note on August 23, 1831, alerting him “that an insurrection of the slaves in that county had taken place, that several families had been massacred and that it would take a considerable military force to put them down.” ![]() The small group of rebels grew over the short-lived rebellion. The rebels in the group traveled from home to home in the neighborhood, freeing the slaves they found at each home and killing any white people they found. The slave rebellion began on August 21, 1831, and was small at first, consisting of Nat and a few of his trusted fellow slaves. In August, after postponing the rebellion due to personal illness, he saw an August 7 solar eclipse, the second one in a six month period, as the final sign that the vision was to be implemented. One of the visions Turner credited with motivating the rebellion. Fellow slaves gave him the nickname, “The Prophet.” ![]() Nat claimed to have visions that he thought were from God. Nat was smart, learning to read and write at a very early age, and often read and preached the Bible. Turner at the time of the slave rebellion was owned by Samuel Turner, Benjamin’s son, who inherited Nat when Benjamin died. Turner was born on Octoin Southampton County, Virginia, a slave held by Benjamin Turner. After, the Virginia legislature received petitions urging the menace of slavery be dealt with as a cause of political and economic failure. Beginning on August 21, Nat and others with him killed his master’s family, then mounted horses and continued the same on farms and elsewhere of slave owners and their families. In early August 1831, Nat Turner, an African-American preacher and slave in Virginia, began planning and preparing a revolt against slavery. Tips from Past “We The Future” Contest Winners!.
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