![]() Turner himself managed to escape capture by hiding in the nearby swamps. The rebels were hunted down, captured, and beheaded their severed heads were placed on pikes along the main highway of Southampton County as a grisly warning to any future slaves who thought of rebelling. Within hours, militias had been formed supported by three artillery units and the USS Natchez and USS Warren. To keep their actions secret they used knives, hatchets, and machetes. For the next week, Turner and his army went from house to house across Southhampton County killing a total of 55 whites and freeing slaves. They then moved on to nearby plantations gathering a small army of about 70 slaves. on August 13, 1831, Turner and 6 fellow slaves murdered the Travis family in their beds. Turner took these signs to be a divine signal to rise up against slavery and spark a rebellion across Virginia. ![]() In 1830, he began seeing signs all around him in the form of strange weather, solar eclipses, and atmospheric disturbances that made the sun appear bluish-green. Turner was a deeply religious man who believed in signs from God. Nat Turner was a field slave on a Virginia plantation owned by Joseph Travis whom he described as being a kind master. But in the summer of 1831, it only took 6 men to spread terror throughout the slave-holding south. Big groups meant a chance for slaves to rebel. ![]() This is why slave states kept such strict laws preventing slaves from meeting in groups. And nothing scared the slave owner more than the thought that their “property” would straight up murder them in their sleep. The planters argued that without slavery, black people would descend into chaos. Africans, most whites believed, was a happy child-like race that was incapable of participating in government or being able to understand complex subjects like mathematics and science. Of course, white preachers left out the stories of Moses and the escape of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. They supported their views with verses are taken from the Bible like Ephesians 6:5 that read “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling.” Southern slave owners went to great lengths to convince people that slavery was not only not evil but was actually good! They used “scientific” arguments heaped in a whole lot of racism that said that Europeans were superior to Africans. ![]()
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