Turner, Nat

Nat (1800-31), a Virginia slave. He became possessed of the idea that the voice of God was calling him to lead his people to freedom. In 1831 he started an impossible insurrection. Several families of whites were massacred. He went from plantation to plantation, killing whites and increasing his following until he had two hundred half crazed negroes at his back. Fifty-five white people had been butchered before troops were obtained to suppress the rising. Turner took refuge in the Dismal Swamp, but was taken finally and hanged. The heads of sixteen of his fellow insurgents were fixed on poles along the highways as a warning. The terror created by the insurrection was such that leading Virginians seriously considered the question of general emancipation.