NAT

TURNER (1800-1831)  , the negro leader of a slave insurrection in Virginia, known as the " Southampton Insurrection," was born in Southampton county, Virginia, in 'Soo . From his childhood he claimed to see visions and hear voices, and he became a Baptist preacher of great influence among the negroes . In 1828 he confided to a few companions that a voice from heaven had announced that " the last shall be first," which was interpreted to mean that the slaves should control . An insurrection was planned, and a solar eclipse in February 1831 and peculiar atmospheric conditions on the 13th of August were accepted as the signal for beginning the work . On the night of the 21st of August 1831, with seven companions, he entered the home of his master, Joseph Travis, and murdered the inmates . After securing guns, horses and liquor they visited other houses, sparing no one . Recruits were added, in some cases by compulsion, until the band numbered about sixty . About noon on the 22nd they were scattered by a small force of whites, hastily gathered . Troops, marines and militia were hurried to the scene, and the negroes were hunted down . In all thirteen men, eighteen women, and twenty-four children had been butchered . After hiding for several weeks Nat was captured on the 3oth of October and was tried and hanged, having made,. meanwhile, a full confession . Nineteen of his associates were hanged and twelve were sent out of the state .

The insurrection, which was attributed to the teachings of the abolitionists, led to the enactment of stricter slave codes . See S . B . Weeks, " Slave Insurrections in Virginia," in

Magazine of American History, vol. xxxi . (New York, 1891), and W . S . Drewry, The Southampton Insurrection (Washington, 1900) .