Nat Turner's Rebellion Against Slavery

One of the ways that slaves defied slavery was to run away. Nat, like every other slave, was prone to this sort of rebellion. One of the first of a series of shocks in Nat Turner’s life was when his father ran away from Benjamin Turner’s place and supposedly escaped to the North. Apparently, no one knew why he left aside the assumption of hatred for the institution that kept him in bondage. This desire for freedom in Nat’s father was strong enough to make him sacrifice his wife and Nat, his only son at the time. Obviously, Nat Turner never forgot his father and this incident as in 1821, himself also ran away. With the death of Master Benjamin Turner in 1810 (and the subsequent demise of his wife Elizabeth shortly afterwards), Nat, Nancy, and
Hardly anyone in Southampton thought a slave rebellion would happen there. With a history of only a revolt in 1799 which otherwise marred a spotless record of the county, there was nothing to indicate that such an inconceivable tragedy as a slave revolt could occur now. Additionally, only seven slaves had every been convicted of crimes and most of the surrounding counties had a similar record. Besides, they saw their blacks as content and docile. They provided their darkies with sufficient “privileges” to keep then happy and in check. However, Southampton whites’ beliefs were not shared by Preacher Nat who though visions and the slave grapevine, believed that these were unusual times. He knew about Denmark Vesey and other slave conspirators. He knew that insurrection scares had shaken a few Virginia communities. By 1826 or 1827 Nat has singled out twenty slaves and freed blacks he could trust. The February 1831 eclipse of the sun was seen by Nat as a sign from God to speak about the plan he had been tight-lipped about for a few years. The initially set date of July 4 to execute the plan did not come to fruition as Nat fell sick in the midst of much forming and rejection of plans. The atmospheric disturbance of August 13, 1831, which eventuated in the display of a black spot on the sun was Nat final sign from Jehovah. On the night of August 21, 1831, after the final meeting at Cabin Pond with his Chosen Four (Hark, Nelson, Henry and Sam) and two others (Jack and Will), they set out on the infamous slave revolt that resulted in the death of about sixty Southampton whites consisting of men, women and