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Nat Turner
Leader of an armed slave rebellion
The preacher whose 1831 revolt shook the foundations of American slavery.
The rise
Born enslaved in Virginia, Turner was a literate, deeply religious preacher who came to believe he was called to lead his people out of bondage.
What they did
In August 1831 he led the most consequential slave rebellion in U.S. history, a revolt that terrified the slaveholding South and intensified the national reckoning that would lead toward civil war.
The full picture
The uprising cost dozens of lives on both sides, and the brutal white backlash that followed killed many innocent Black people and tightened the laws of bondage.
Why it matters
Turner became an enduring symbol of resistance, proof that the enslaved would risk everything for freedom.
“I should arise and prepare myself, and slay my enemies with their own weapons.”