Nat turner biography hanged vs hung

Nat Turner was born on October 2, 1800, in Southampton County, Virginia, as a slave of Benjamin Turner. His mother was an enslaved woman named Nancy, but his father is unknown. Turner was allowed to learn how to read and write, and he was instructed in religious matters. As a result, Turner became devoutly religious, spending his free time reading the Bible, praying, and fasting. As a child, some even thought he would become a prophet, due to his uncanny ability to describe events that happened before he was born. He would eventually become a preacher, believing he received messages from God through visions and nature.

In 1821, Turner ran away from the plantation of Samuel Turner, his former owner’s brother. He hid in the woods for a month and only returned after receiving what he saw as a sign from God. When Samuel died, Thomas Moore – and then his widow – became his new owners. When the widowed Moore married John Travis, Turner was sent to work on Travis’s land.

Turner received a vision in 1825 of impending bloody conflict between blacks and whites; three years later, he received another message that he should lead an assault against Satan’s forces – white slaveowners. He began to prepare and waited for another sign from God about when to take action. This sign came in February 1831, when an eclipse blocked out the sun. Turner and a small group of supporters planned to launch the attack on July 4, but Turner fell ill and had to delay it. Then, on August 13, a strange atmospheric disturbance caused the sky to turn blue-green, which Turner took as a sign to begin his rebellion.

A week later, on August 21, 1831, Turner and his supporters began a revolt against whites in Southampton County. He killed the Travis family as they slept, then took to horses, and spread the violence throughout the county. As the rebels traveled, they recruited other slaves and stole ammunition from neighboring plantations, killing all of the whites they encountered. Turner

In the early hours of August 22, 1831, a slave named Nat Turner led more than fifty followers in a bloody revolt in Southampton, Virginia, killing nearly 60 white people, mostly women and children. The local authorities stopped the uprising by dawn the next day. They captured or killed most of the insurgents, although Turner himself managed to avoid capture for sixty days.

Even though Turner and his followers had been stopped, panic spread across the region. In the days following the attack, 3000 soldiers, militia men, and vigilantes killed more than one hundred suspected rebels. In a letter written a month later from North Carolina, Nelson Allyn described the retaliation against African Americans:

"The insurrection of the blacks have made greate disturbance here every man is armd with a gun by his bed nights and in the field at work a greate many of the blacks have been shot there heads taken of stuck on poles at the forkes of rodes some been hung, some awaiting there trial in several countys, 6 in this county I expect to see them strecht ther trial nex week there is no danger of their rising again here."

Nineteen of the thirty who had been arrested were convicted and executed. The rest, along with 300 free blacks from Southampton County, agreed to be exiled to Liberia in Africa. Turner was hanged on November 11, 1831.

Nat Turner’s rebellion led to the passage of a series of new laws. The Virginia legislature actually debated ending slavery, but chose instead to impose additional restrictions and harsher penalties on the activities of both enslaved and free African Americans. Other slave states followed suit, restricting the rights of free and enslaved blacks to gather in groups, travel, preach, and learn to read and write.

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Questions for Discussion

1. How much time passed between Nat Turner’s Rebellion and the writing of this letter? How might this have an effect o

Nat Turner, the leader of a bloody revolt of enslaved people in Southampton County, Virginia, is hanged in Jerusalem, the county seat, on November 11, 1831.

Turner, an enslaved man and educated minister, believed that he was chosen by God to lead his people out of slavery. On August 21, 1831, he initiated his uprising by slaughtering Joseph Travis, his owner, and Travis’ family. With seven followers, Turner set off across the countryside, hoping to rally hundreds of enslaved people to join his insurrection. Turner planned to capture the county armory at Jerusalem, Virginia, and then march 30 miles to Dismal Swamp, where his rebels would be able to elude their pursuers.

During the next two days and nights, Turner and 75 followers rampaged through Southampton County, killing about 60 white people. Locals resisted the rebels, and then the state militia—consisting of some 3,000 men—crushed the rebellion. Only a few miles from Jerusalem, Turner and all his followers were dispersed, captured, or killed. In the aftermath of the rebellion, scores of African Americans were lynched, though many of them had not participated in the revolt. Turner himself was not captured until the end of October, and after confessing without regret to his role in the bloodshed, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. On November 11, he was hanged in Jerusalem.

Turner’s rebellion was the largest revolt of enslaved people in U.S. history and led to a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the movement, assembly and education of enslaved peoples.

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Slave rebellions carried bloody consequences. Rebels were executed. Family, friends, and neighbors might be beaten and killed. In some cases, slave holders placed bloodied and dismembered bodies in public view to remind passersby of their awful power. Still, in the midst of terror, enslaved people rebelled.

Nat Turner believed he was called by God to deliver his people from slavery. Turner used preaching to convince people to join his revolt. On August 21, 1831, at 2:00 a.m., Turner and his followers started at his master’s house and killed the entire family. They marched throughout Southampton County in Virginia, killing at least 55 people until white authorities crushed the revolt. Turner avoided capture for nearly two months before he was caught. He was tried in the Southampton County Court and was sentenced to be hung on November 11th. Turner’s revolt shocked the white south and, in retaliation, white southerners tightened laws restricting enslaved people’s lives.