Nat Turner's slave rebellion, the bloodiest in…

Nat Turner's slave rebellion, the bloodiest in United States history, breaks out in Southampton County, Virginia.

Born in 1800 to an African native who transmitted a passionate hatred of slavery to her son, Turner had been the property of a prosperous small-plantation owner in remote Southampton County, Virginia.

He had learned to read from one of his master's sons, and he had eagerly absorbed intensive religious training.

Sold in the early 1820s to a neighboring farmer of small means, his religious ardor tended to approach fanaticism during the following decade.

Seeing himself as chosen by God to lead his people out of bondage, Turner has begun to exert a powerful influence on many of the nearby slaves, who call him “the Prophet.”

In 1831, shortly after he had been sold again—this time to a craftsman named Joseph Travis—a sign in the form of an eclipse of the Sun had caused Turner to believe that the hour to strike was near.

He plans to capture the armory at the county seat, Jerusalem, and, having gathered many recruits, to press on to the Dismal Swamp, thirty miles (forty-eight kilometers) to the east, where capture would be difficult.

On the night of August 21, together with seven trusted fellow slaves, he launches a campaign of total annihilation, murdering Travis and his family in their sleep and then setting forth on a bloody march toward Jerusalem.