Nat Turner's Rebellion

Roughly 30 years before the start of the Civil War, a slave named Nat Turner unleashed havoc on Southampton County, Virginia. He rallied together a group of slaves to fight back against the whites. The only problem is that they killed indiscriminately. Women and children, even sleeping and defenseless, were not safe from their chaotic wrath. What's more, because of this rebellion, many innocent slaves were also killed.

Nat Turner was a devout Christian, Baptist to be precise, who claimed to be the recipient of visions and messages from god. One of these visions caused him to come home of his own accord after escaping enslavement in his early twenties. Another supposedly told him to arm a group of slaves and go on a murderous rampage.

On August 21, 1831, Nat Turner led a group of blacks in a rebellion against the whites of Southampton County. The group of rebels eventually numbered around 50 or more. The group of white victims numbered around 60. The rebels went from plantation to plantation, killing both those who were guilty and those who were innocent of the inhumanity that had so angered them. Did the end justify the means? No. In the end, Nat and 16 of his rebels were caught and killed. Were the means even necessary to the freedom these slaves had in mind? Certainly not. Sleeping children can hardly stop grown adults from escaping to their freedom and the members of Nat Turner's Rebellion killed several sleeping children.

After the band of rebellious slaves was stopped, Nat Turner went into hiding. He was discovered by a hunter and his dog on October 30, 1831. After his capture, lawyer Thomas R. Gray compiled "Confessions of Nat Turner." Gray claimed that this text was the precise word of Nat Turner's confession. Some question the veracity of this claim and the motive of Gray.

In "Confessions of Nat Turner," Turner is quoted as saying that God ordered the rebellion, in so many words. The first home that was attacked on August 21 was that of Nat Turner's owner, a man who Nat describes in Confessions as a man "who was to me a kind master." Nat and his rebels killed the entire family, including a baby. Of all the killing, Nat reportedly said, "Twas my object to carry terror and devastation wherever we went." If that was really his goal, he achieved it.

In the aftermath of Nat Turner's Rebellion, the county of Southampton, Virginia went crazy. Several innocent slaves were killed, though back then, killing some slaves was nothing to some slaves killing whites. Those who cared that innocent slaves were being punished did nothing to stop it, if such people even existed at the place and time. It is likely that these murders were committed out of fear. Fear that the cruelty heaped upon slaves was finally going to backfire. It did, in 1861, when the Civil War began too late to save the slaves killed over Nat Turner's Rebellion and too late to save the whites who had been the object of such anger.

Sources

Confessions of Nat Turner (1831)

The Nat Turner Rebellion, retrieved 3/30/11, historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6811

Larson, Jennifer L., A Rebellion to Remember: The Legacy of Nat Turner, docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/turner.html