Today, many people are aware that Nat Turner led what was probably the most famous slave resurrection in American history. However, when word flashed across Virginia in the later summer of 1831 that an individual named Nat Turner had led a violent slave revolt and still remained at large, it took the state's governor almost a month to get an accurate enough description of Turner to publicize a reward for his arrest (Wood 22). Today, Turner is an important historical figure because he led the slave uprising that inflicted the most severe blow on slave owners during the whole period of slavery in the United States. But he is also important because research into his life has led to greater knowledge and better understanding of slave resistance in the antebellum South (Wikipedia 1). This research has led to greater understanding of the exploitative conditions of the Southern slave system and the roughly 250 instances of other similar slave insurrections.
Nat Turner was born on October 2, 1800 and would die on November 11, 1831, three months after he led his famous rebellion. He was born a slave of Benjamin Turner in Southampton County, Virginia and later reported that he had always been a deeply religious person who was frequently visited by visions. In fact, he related that when he was 21 years old he ran away from his master, but returned a month later after receiving a vision. He became known among fellow slaves as "The Prophetö (Wikipedia 1). It's not surprising, therefore, that Turner viewed a solar eclipse in February 1831 as a sign ôwhich determined me not to wait any longerö (Wood 24). Significantly, Turner had intended to launch the rebellion on July 4, 1831, America's Independence Day, but he fell sick and plans had to be postponed until ominous sunspot activity led Turner to believe that August 1831 was the chosen time.
Turner launched his rebellion on August 22, a date forty years to the day after a famous secret
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