![]() ![]() White southern fears of slave rebellion, which were already a powerful force in the white southern imagination, became amplified significantly, and not merely in Virginia. Though ultimately unsuccessful in its goal of overturning slavery, the Southampton Rebellion was a crucial turning point for the institution and for the political history of the United States. Nat Turner himself managed to elude capture for more than two months before he was taken into custody, tried and hanged on November 11, 1831. The state of Virginia tried fifty black people in Southampton County for insurrection over the next several months, convicting thirty and executing eighteen. The rebels killed roughly sixty white people, while the militia and white mobs killed around 200 black people, some of whom were beheaded and mutilated and many of whom had nothing to do with the rebellion in the first place. In the end, the rebellion lasted less than forty-eight hours. As the numbers grew and word began to spread about what was going on, white Virginians sent a militia unit to confront Turner and his small army, and it proceeded to scatter, kill or capture nearly all of Turner’s men. Late in August of that year, Turner and a small number of recruits began moving from house to house, killing nearly every white person they could find and being joined by several dozen additional enslaved and free black rebels. In his twenties he began to experience visions and revelations that he was certain could only have come from God, and by 1831 he believed he had received divine ordination to rise up against slavery, vanquish white slaveholders, and usher his fellow bondspersons to freedom. ![]() Turner grew up enslaved in southeastern Virginia’s Southampton County and he was deeply convicted in his Christian faith. The true story of Nat Turner and the rebellion he led is a compelling one. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |