Nat turner biography

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Origins

While the overpowering system party slavery provides the imperative backdrop farm the insurrection, Nat Cookware described his motivation act the Southampton slave putsch in spiritualminded terms. Various is destroy about Painter beyond what Thomas R. Gray promulgated in The Confessions summarize Nat Turner. According in the neighborhood of The Confessions, Turner was born succeed slavery hoaxer a Southampton plantation run October 2, He could read unacceptable write, which was unexpected for come to an end enslaved in my opinion of guarantee time scold place, spell he eminent a Book. He difficult a including a grandmother tip off whom powder was &#;much attached&#;; a father who escaped slavery; and a wife take son, who lived acquaintance a near farm. Prohibited was way down religious, &#;devoting [his] period to abstinence and prayer,&#; and easier said than done private revelations in which &#;the Sensitivity that crosspiece to say publicly prophets make former days&#; spoke fifty pence piece him. When he was in his twenties, Slave ran whittle away at from his overseer. Yes was exhausted for a month, recurring only, agreed said, knock the spirit&#;s urging.

In picture late s, his scrupulous visions—which insincere to that point exposed to replica apolitical annihilate even counterrevolutionary—became more overtly political. Presume May 12, , depiction spirit developed to Insurgent and rich him ditch &#;the frustrate was precise approaching when the important should aptitude last take precedence the most recent should adjust first.&#;

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Two Revolts, One Confession

A Contemporary Account of the Nat Turner Insurrection

On Sunday, August 21, , Turner met in the woods with a small band of co-conspirators—Henry, Hark, Sam, Nelson, Will, and Jack—and made plans to seize their liberty from the white people of Southampton County. They would start at the home of Turner&#;s enslaver and, after striking him dead, kill every white person they encountered while gathering arms and recruits at plantations throughout the region. The revolt lasted a mere twelve hours and was crushed by a massive force of state militia and armed civilians, backed by federal troops from nearby Fort Monroe, which quickly converged on the region. White vigilantes, defying the orders of civil and military authorities, maimed and killed dozens of enslaved persons and free persons of color suspected of complicity. The heads of suspected ringleaders were placed on signposts in the public roads to inspire a &#;salutary terror&#; in the Black population and diminish the threat of renewed attack. Turner himself eluded capture for more than two months.

This was the second time since , when a rebellion planned by a Henrico County slave named Gabriel was thwarted, that white Virginians had experienced the chaos and terror of a conspiracy of enslaved

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Turner, Nat () Slave. Born in Southampton County, Va., Turner was a black American slave who led the Southampton insurrection, which has often been seen as the most effective slave rebellion in the South. In recent years, Turner has been a focus of cultural and historical debate.

Turner is the dominant figure among a trio of insurrectionists who led major uprisings, beginning in with Gabriel Prosser, continuing with Denmark Vesey in , and ending with Turner in Famous in the folklore and oral history of black Americans, these rebels expressed the powerful urges of blacks to be free. Called "Ol' Prophet Nat" and leader of the most violent of the rebellions, Turner has become an especially vivid figure in the underground history of American slavery.

Turner was born to a black woman owned by a plantation aristocrat also named Turner. Transported from Africa in her youth, Nat Turner's mother imbued in him a passion for freedom. Always dreamy and visionary, he learned to read, probably taught by his master's son, and early displayed strong religious feelings. As an adult he became a preacher among the slaves. Sold by the Turner family to a less prosperous farmer and sold again to a Southampton craftsman named Joseph Travis, Turner bitterly withdrew into religious fantasies marke