Nat Turner

Nat Turner was born on October 2, 1800 as property of a small plantation owner in Southampton, Virginia. His mother strongly hated slavery, and this hate was passed down to Nat. In his early twenties he was sold to a neighboring farm. He was sold again in 1831 to the Joseph Travis family. Shortly after he was sold, he started a revolt. This occurred on August 21, 1831. This was to become the largest slave revolt in the history of …

…hung. While Turner’s rebellion was apparently a failure, he was able to convince whites in the South that slaves were not content with their living conditions. “In Southampton county black people came to measure time from "Nat's Fray," or "Old Nat's War." For many years in black churches throughout the country, the name Jerusalem referred not only to the Bible but also covertly to the place where the rebel slave had met his death.”