Why nat turner rebellion

It ignited a culture of fear in Virginia that eventually spread to the rest of the South, and is said to have expedited the coming of the Civil War. In the immediate aftermath of the rebellion, however, many Southern states, including North Carolina, tightened restrictions on African Americans. Over the course of two days, dozens of whites were killed as Turner's band of insurrectionists, which eventually numbered over fifty, moved systematically from plantation to plantation in Southampton County.

Most of the rebels were executed along with countless other African Americans who were suspected, often without cause, of participating in the conspiracy. Nat Turner, though, eluded capture for over two months. He hid in the Dismal Swamp area and was discovered accidentally by a hunter on October He surrendered peacefully. The rebels then attacked several farms near the starting point of the revolt, killing nearly all the whites and gathering slaves to join them.

At each farm the rebels visited, they killed almost all the whites who had not fled. Turner himself killed one person, Margaret Whitehead, whom he caught after she had evaded the other rebels.

Waller hosted a school on his farm, and when word of the revolt reached him, he instructed the children to gather together. For about eighteen hours, the rebels were unchecked. But they were notably less successful in another task: recruiting fellow slaves. Their number increased to as many as five dozen, but most refused to join the revolt, even at the largest plantations. And the rebels faced another problem. News of the revolt did not lead to the spontaneous uprising they hoped for. Most blacks in Southampton simply were not ready to risk their lives in a revolt, especially one that faced such long odds.

While the rebels were adding a few people at a time, whites quickly rallied from all directions. By the middle of the day on Monday, August 22, several armed white groups were in pursuit. One small force encountered the rebels at a farm just outside Jerusalem. After a brief skirmish, the whites retreated. The rebels set off in pursuit but were ambushed by a second group of armed whites who had been drawn to the sound of fighting.

After another defeat on Tuesday morning, August 23, , Turner was separated from the remnant of his army. The revolt was over. Whites from southern Virginia and parts of North Carolina regained control of Southampton within two days, but immediately after the revolt, whites throughout the country were on edge. As a result, they responded brutally.

Even enslaved persons who had helped whites were not necessarily safe. For instance, white interrogators had not believed one enslaved man, Hubbard, when he told them he had saved his mistress from the rebels. As a result, soon after the revolt, the military and political leaders turned their attention to preventing the lynching of suspected blacks.

About three dozen blacks were killed without trial, violating even the pretense of a rule of law. But whites achieved the goal of the limiting the killing of enslaved persons because of their value as property. In his declaration, he promised to prosecute any white who killed any enslaved person not actively resisting white authority.

By stopping the killing, white leaders ensured that the surviving rebels would be tried. The trials were by no means fair — the accused slaves were tried by an unsympathetic court of slaveholders — but the most remarkable thing about them was the protections the court offered the accused.

Others had their sentence commuted because they were young or reluctant rebels. In the end, Southampton executed eighteen enslaved persons and one free black. Nat Turner himself remained at large until October 30, , when he was finally captured and brought to the county seat of Southampton.

While in jail awaiting trial, he spoke freely about the revolt, and local lawyer Thomas R. Gray approached him with a plan to take down his story. Because the revolt reminded whites about the dangers of slavery, approximately two thousand Virginians petitioned their legislature to do something to end the practice. In spite of an intense manhunt, the ringleader remained hidden in the woods just miles away from the Travis farm, where the rebellion began, for two months.

When Phipps raised his gun, a weak, emaciated Turner emerged from the foxhole and surrendered. Dozens stood trial for their participation in the rebellion. While some were acquitted, more than 50 were convicted and sentenced to death by a collection of 20 judges—all slaveholders.

In addition, revenge-minded white mobs lynched blacks who played no part in the uprising. While some historians have estimated that the mobs killed between and enslaved people, Breen estimates the death toll closer to After his arrest, Turner was taken to the seat of Southampton County, a small town called Jerusalem present-day Courtland, Virginia. As recounted by John W. In Virginia, the rebellion marked the end of a nascent abolitionist movement. Months after the insurrection, the Virginia legislature narrowly rejected a measure for gradual emancipation that would have followed the lead of the North.