On August 21, 1831, enslaved people in Southampton County, Virginia escaped from captivity and rose up in rebellion. Their leader, Nat Turner, a self-educated and confident enslaved Baptist minister, believed the revolt ordained by God. Oral tradition passed down from slaveholders and enslaved contends Turner carried the Bible pictured above throughout his life and during the uprising itself.

Born into slavery in 1800, Nat Turner earned a reputation among the enslaved as a prophet at an early age. As a young man, the future rebel leader believed his destiny was to free his people through armed revolt against slaveholders. During the rebellion, Turner’s followers moved across plantations, murdering roughly 55 whites and rallying enslaved people. Turner’s rebels planned to travel on to Jerusalem, Virginia, seize guns, and make a permanent home in the Great Dismal Swamp.

White militia engaged the rebels near a local farm on the way to Jerusalem scattering their formation and pushing them into the woods. Turner tried to reorganize rebels the following day but suffered a second defeat during another battle with the militia. By August 23, the rebellion was defeated. Turner, his rebels, more than 200 non-combatant, free and enslaved black people were executed as a result of the insurrection.

Nat Turner’s Rebellion alarmed Americans. A wave of panic washed over the South.  In response, local governments severely tightened Black Codes in an attempt to keep African Americans, both slave and free, completely under their control. These actions inflamed the debate over slavery nationwide.

The Bible pictured above is now in the collection of theSmithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visitors to the museum can view this object in the “Slavery and Freedom” exhibition.

Credits and Sources:

2011.28 - Bible belonging to Nat Turner, 1830s. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Maurice A. Person and Noah and Brooke Porter.

LC-USZ62-38902 – Horrid Massacre in Virginia, 1831. Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division. No known restrictions on publication.

Larson, Jennifer L. “A Rebellion to Remember: The Legacy of Nat Turner.” Documenting the American South. Accessed January 7, 2016. http://docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/turner.html.

"Nat Turner, 1800-1831. The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Va." Documenting the American South. Accessed January 13, 2016. http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/turner/turner.html.  

PBS: Africans in America. “Nat Turner's Rebellion.” Accessed January 7, 2016. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1518.html.