The Call to Fight SLAVE REBELLIONS
Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids|November/December 2016

To Nat Turner, the unusual bluish-green sun that dawned one morning was a sign.

Marcia Amidon Lusted
The Call to Fight SLAVE REBELLIONS

Together with an earlier solar eclipse and his religious visions, Turner took the second solar eclipse as an indication that “I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with their own weapons.”

Turner and six other enslaved men set out early on the morning of August 21, 1831. Their first stop as they moved through Southampton County, Virginia, was at the house of Turner’s master, where they killed the entire family. Within 36 hours, Turner’s group had grown to about 70 men, and they had killed at least 55 white people. Most of the men involved in the insurrection were quickly captured. After a trial, many of the convicted men were either executed or sold out of state.

Turner remained a fugitive until October, when he was captured, convicted, hanged, and his body badly mutilated. More than 100 black people with no connection to the rebellion also were killed. Turner’s actions struck fear in the hearts of white people in the South. They feared that all slaves would rise up and murder their masters.

While Nat Turner’s actions led to the deadliest rebellion in the South, it was not the first to take place. Enslaved people had been fighting against their condition for years in little and big ways. They broke, hid, or stole tools. They burned crops and buildings. They organized work slowdowns. They pretended to be ill or ran away. And they organized armed rebellions.

Historians believe that enslaved people organized more than 300 rebellions before the Civil War (1861– 1865). Rebellions were defined as having a minimum of 10 slaves joining together with the aim of freedom. It was dangerous to consider involvement in such revolts. If caught, a slave might face execution, branding, being sold out of state, or having family members sold away to different owners.

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