Nat Turner was 31. He was a slave under the authority of a particularly brutal overseer in Southampton, Va. He was a preacher. Some historians have painted him as crazy, but many people believe he was simply mad as hell and didn't want to take it anymore.
On the morning of August 21, 1831, Nat Turner and six other slaves entered the house of his master and killed him and his entire family. Picking up about 50 to 60 slave supporters as they went, the group from house to house, killing about 55 whites before being stopped by the militia.
Turner was eventually sent to prison, where he famously dictated his "confessions." On Nov. 11 of the same year, he was hanged and skinned.
In the aftermath of the rebellion, Virginia abolitionists shied away from their cause and state legislators passed strict laws banning literacy for free blacks as well as slaves, and other states followed suit. One hundred and seventy-six years later, we still feel reverberations of these laws, and by extension, this rebellion, in the black community. And it all comes back to 2007…
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I think it was Eddie Murphy who once said, "Kill, kill, kill the white man."
Damn, I had no idea about the laws banning literacy for free blacks in addition to slaves. Thanks for the Stereohyped Black History moment.
I loved this Black History Breakdown. And would really love to see it more often. Thanks for posting this article.
Thanks!! This opened an interesting discussion in my house today with my son. We homeschool and posts like this make great starting points for lessons!!
Wow, Nat and his crew were NO JOKE.
If you think about it, Nat probably knew that he would probably be killed in a terrible way for doing what he did. I can just imagine what his master must have been doing to him or his family for him to flip out like that. Some people can only be pushed so far.
i, also, appreciate the Stereohyped Black History moment. i'd love to see more of these!
In school, I was "taught" about the Nat Turner slave revolt. It was basically "some black guy went crazy and messed with some white people." I didn't know how intense it was.
Thanks, Lauren.
[...] play pranks. I don't think it was a threat against anybody." What a joke. Thank God Nat Turner wasn't around to hear that [...]
[...] noose later, Gabriel Prosser, who did that Virginia slave revolt thing about 31 years before Nat Turner, is getting a gubernatorial pardon. It probably helps that the revolt was halted before it even [...]