Nat Turner's Rebellion
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| Nat Turner Slave Rebellion | |||||||||
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| Part of Antislavery movement | |||||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||||
| Image:AmericaAfrica.pngSouthern Slaves | Image:Flag of Virginia.svg Southampton County | ||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Nat Turner | Numerous | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 50+ | 15,000+ | ||||||||
| Casualties | |||||||||
| 200+ dead | 57 dead | ||||||||
Nat Turner's Rebellion was a slave rebellion that happened in Virginia in August 1831. Over 50 people were reported killed. It lasted only a few days before being put down, but leader Nat Turner remained in hiding for several months afterwards.
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[edit] Background
Turner started with a few trusted fellow slaves, but the insurgency ultimately numbered more than 50 slaves and free blacks, most of whom were on horseback. On August 13, 1831, there was an atmospheric disturbance in which the sun appeared bluish-green. Turner took this as the final signal, and a week later, on August 21, the rebellion began. The rebels traveled from house to house, freeing slaves and killing all the white people they found.
Because the slaves did not want to alert anyone to their presence as they carried out their attacks, they used knives, hatchets, axes, and blunt instruments instead of firearms. Turner called on his group to "kill all whites." The rebellion spared almost no one. A small child who hid in a fireplace was among the few survivors. Until Turner and his brigade of slaves met resistance at the hands of a white militia, 55 white men, women and children were killed. <ref>Oates, Stephen B. (1990 [1975]) The fires of jubilee : Nat Turner's fierce rebellion. New York: HarperPerennial ISBN 0-06-091670-2.</ref>
[edit] Aftermath
The rebellion was suppressed within 48 hours, but Turner eluded capture for months. On October 30, he was discovered in a swamp by a white farmer and then arrested. After his capture, his court appointed trial lawyer, Thomas Ruffin Gray, took it upon himself to publish The Confessions of Nat Turner, derived partly from research done while Turner was in hiding and partly from conversations with Turner before his trial. This document remains the primary window into Turner's mind. Because of its author's obvious bias, it is a subject of much contention among historians.
On November 5 1831, Nat Turner was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.
He was hanged on November 11 in Jerusalem, Virginia.
In the aftermath of the revolt 48 balck men and women were tried on charges of conspiracy, insurrection, and treason. In all, eighteen blacks-including one women- were convicted and hanged
[edit] Casualties
As quoted in the book "The Fires of Jubilee" by Stephen Oates, Nat Turner had ordered his followers to "kill all the white people", including women and children. No record exists of the number and names of Turner's followers who lost their lives.
Children were the group that suffered the most casualties (in the first few minutes of the insurgency, a nine year old was hacked to death, and an infant in a crib was stabbed to death) and arguably the most brutal deaths, evidenced by a stop that Turner and his insurgents made at a school full of elementary-aged children: After killing the teacher, the insurgents systematically decapitated ten of the children and piled their corpses in ritualistic fashion in front of the school. One eleven-year-old girl avoided this fate—she was repeatedly struck in the body with an axe and died shortly thereafter.
Nat Turner's Rebellion resulted in a vicious response by Southern plantation owners. Eager to show that actions such as Turner's would not be tolerated, plantation owners throughout the south executed vigilante justice with terrorist-fervor, killing slaves and other persons of African descent (many of whom had no connection with the rebellion).
[edit] Men
14 white men were killed in the uprising:
- Joseph Travis — former master of Nat Turner; along with his wife, hacked to death in his sleep with an axe.
- Joel Westbrook — fourteen year old apprentice to Joseph Travis; hacked to death with axes.
- Henry Bryant — white slaveowner; hacked and stabbed to death with axes.
- Salanthial "Sal" Francis — white slaveowner; lured from his one-room cabin and stabbed and clubbed to death.
- William Reese Sr. — white slaveowner, owner of one of the slaves involved in the rebellion; hacked to death with axes.
- Hartwell Peebles — overseer at the Turner Plantation; shot to death.
- Richard Whitehead — Methodist preacher, son of the widow Caty Whitehead. He was in a field when approached by Turner and the rebels, who beckoned for him to come see them as they stood beneath a tree. When Whitehead approached, he was beaten down, and as he begged for his life, he was chopped into pieces with an axe.
- Nathaniel Francis — white slaveowner. A slave who witnessed the murder of Sally Travis ran to warn Francis, and Francis was on his way to confirm the slave's news when insurgents approached his farm and murdered him along with his three-year-old nephew, elementary-school aged nephew, and overseer.
- Henry Doyle — Nathaniel Francis' overseer; Shot to death.
- John Barrow — farmer. A veteran of the War of 1812, he fought the insurgents in fierce hand-to-hand combat, nearly killing a few before they finally overtook him and slit his throat. While Barrow fought the slaves, his wife escaped harm. Impressed with Barrow's bravery, the insurgents wrapped his corpse in a white blanket in preparation for his burial.
- Ed Drury — overseer at a farm neighboring that of Jacob Williams; disemboweled.
- George Vaughn — son of Rebecca Vaughn; stabbed, hacked, and shot to death.
- Unknown — overseer for Rebecca Vaughn's farmland.
- Bill Williams — plantation owner; stabbed, hacked, and shot to death.
[edit] Women
18 white women were killed in the uprising:
- Sally Travis — wife of Joseph Travis; along with her husband, hacked to death in her sleep with an axe.
- Wife of Henry Bryant; stabbed and hacked to death with axes.
- Mother-in-law of Henry Bryant; stabbed and hacked to death with axes.
- Piety Reese — wife of William Reese Sr.; stabbed and hacked to death in her sleep.
- Elizabeth Turner — young widow of Nat's master; hacked to death along with her neighbor, Sarah Newsom, as they knelt hiding from the rebels.
- Sarah Newsom — neighbor and friend of Elizabeth Turner; beaten over the head with a sword and then chopped into pieces.
- Caty Whitehead — young widow with five teenage daughters who was known around town for her hospitality to not only whites but also free blacks and slaves. Dragged from her home and killed by having her neck struck with an axe with such force that it was nearly cut off.
- 3 teenaged daughters of Caty Whitehead; all hacked and stabbed to death.
- Margaret Whitehead — Teenage daughter of Caty Whitehead. Nat Turner chased her through a field until she tripped and fell and then struck her in the head repeatedly with the butt of his sword before bludgeoning her to death with a fence post.
- Wife of slaveowner John "Choctaw" Williams; chopped into pieces with an axe along with her child.
- Levi Waller — school teacher who was conducting classes with elementary-school aged children when the school was attacked by insurgents. She was hacked and stabbed to death while attempting to protect her students, who were subsequently decapitated.
- Wife of overseer Caswell Worrell; stabbed and hacked to death.
- Wife of Jacob Williams; stabbed and hacked to death.
- Rebecca Vaughn — young widow whose house was along the route that the insurgents were taking. She was preparing lunch for friends of her son's when the insurgents approached. She offered them everything inside the home if they would spare her; an insurgent then shot her in the face with a rifle.
- Anne Williams — eighteen year old niece of Rebecca Vaughn who was in her aunt's care. She was getting dressed to greet her cousin's friends when she heard the gunshot that killed her aunt. She came downstairs and was shot to death by insurgents, who then posed her corpse in the yard so that it would burn in the sun.
- Wife of Bill Williams. Forced to watch her husband and two children murdered, and then forced to lie down beside her husband's corpse before she was repeatedly shot with muskets.
[edit] Children
25 white children were killed in the uprising:
- Infant son of Joseph and Sally Travis; Stabbed to death in his cradle.
- Putnam Moore — nine year old boy who was the legal owner of Nat Turner; hacked to death with axes.
- Son of Henry Bryant; stabbed and hacked to death with axes.
- William Reese Jr. — son of Piety and William Reese Sr.; stabbed and hacked to death when he came to check on his mother, after hearing the rebels attacking her.
- Elementary-school aged grandchild of Caty Whitehead; stabbed, beaten, and hacked to death.
- Three-year-old nephew of Nathaniel Francis; Decapitated with an axe.
- Elementary school aged nephew of Nathaniel Francis; stabbed to death.
- Elementary school aged son of John "Choctaw" Williams and his wife; decapitated.
- 10 schoolchildren were decapitated at an elementary school. The insurgents, leaving the heads inside the school, stacked the headless corpses in the front yard of the school. One child was repeatedly struck with axes. She died shortly after being discovered by militia men tracking Turner and the insurgents.
- 3 children of Jacob Williams; all stabbed and hacked to death.
- Child of Caswell Worrell; stabbed and hacked to death.
- 2 children of Bill Williams. Their mother was forced to watch as they were was shot, stabbed, and hacked to death.
[edit] Near victims
- Giles Reese and family — white slaveowner. Nat Turner made it explicit that the Reese farm was not to be targeted, because his own family was enslaved there at the time.
- Wiley Francis — white slaveowner. He refused to leave his home when it was approached by Turner and his followers. Francis' slaves, who regarded Francis as a particularly kind master, stood between Turner and Francis' house and informed Turner that they would fight to the death protecting their master and his land. Turner, not wanting to cause any commotion, declared that Francis was not worth the effort and left.
- Harriet Whitehead — teenaged daughter of Caty Whitehead. One of Caty Whitehead's slaves, an old black man known by the other slaves as Old Hubbard, hid her in between mattresses and told the rebels that she had escaped.
- John Clark Turner and family — slaveowner, boyhood friend of Nat Turner. In spite of his orders to "kill all the white people", Turner ordered the insurgents to spare Turner and his family.
- Lavinia Francis — wife of Nathaniel Francis. Eight months pregnant at the time of the rebellion, she initially hid in a closet before attempting to flee the farm. A slave woman then attacked her with a knife, but slaves loyal to Nathaniel Francis saved her and took her to safe haven.
- Mother of Nathaniel Francis. She discovered the carnage at the Travis plantation, then was taken to safe haven by poor white men and loyal slaves.
- Wife of John Barrow. She escaped harm while her husband fought insurgents.
- Levi Waller — white slaveowner and proprietor of a community center. He hid in high weeds when insurgents attacked his home.
- 2 sons of Levi Waller. Received early news of the coming of Turner and his insurgents and escaped.
- William Crocker — school teacher who fled with several of his students when word came that the insurgents were headed towards the school.
- Elementary school-aged child that hid in a chimney while ten of her classmates were decapitated.
- Jacob Williams — white slaveowner. One of his own slaves was waiting for him with insurgents when he arrived from conducting business. He spotted them on his way up the path and hid in the woods.
- Caswell Worrel — Jacob Williams' overseer. Hid in the fields when insurgents tried to lure him into the open to kill him.
[edit] References
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[edit] External Links
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