On October 30, 1831, Nat Turner, an enslaved Black preacher and leader of a major slave rebellion, was captured in Southampton County, Virginia.
His capture ended a two-month manhunt following one of the most bloody uprisings against slavery in the United States.
Nat Turner was born into slavery on October 2, 1800, in Southampton County, Virginia. Turner often preached to other enslaved people and claimed to receive visions and messages from God and these beliefs led him to plan and lead a rebellion against slavery.
On August 21, 1831, Turner led a group of enslaved and free Black people in an armed rebellion. Over four days, the group killed 55 white men, women and children in Southampton County. State militias and local armed groups quickly responded, killing between 36 and 120 Black people, many of whom had no involvement in the revolt.
The rebellion was the deadliest slave uprising in U.S. history.
After the rebellion was quashed, Turner went into hiding in the woods and swamps near the area where the uprising began.
On October 30, 1831, a local farmer named Benjamin Phipps discovered Turner hiding in a shallow depression in the ground covered by a fallen tree. Locals later referred to the spot as “Nat Turner’s Cave,” although it was not an actual cave. Turner was taken into custody without resistance and brought to the jail in Jerusalem, Virginia, now known as Courtland.
Turner was tried on November 5, 1831, for leading the rebellion. He pleaded not guilty but was convicted and sentenced to death. His attorney, James Strange French, did not present a defense.
Turner was executed by hanging on November 11, 1831.
Before his execution, Turner gave a detailed account of the rebellion and his religious visions to attorney Thomas Ruffin Gray. Gray published The Confessions of Nat Turner later that month.
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Nat Turner on his list of the 100 Greatest African Americans.
