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Esmeralda Cordova
Professor L.Rash
History
25 March 2019
Nat Turner, A Slave Insurrection
From being a sweet, religious, innocent child, who was noticed for his manners, Nat
Turner turned out to be the biggest mass murder of all slave rebellions in history. However, all
this happened due to the fact that one day he claimed he heard loud noises up above in the
heavens saying that the serpent was loosened and that it was his responsibility to fight the
serpent, “for the time was fast approaching” (Marcus, Giggie, Burner 234). August 21, 1861,
proved to be a day of sorrow, pain, and a day where many lessons were learned.
Nat Turner was born on October 2, 1800, on Benjamin Turner plantation in Southampton
County, Virginia. Nat Turner was brilliant and imaginative even from early childhood. Since
Benjamin allowed Nat Turner to learn how to read and write At times he was overheard
describing "things that had happened before my birth", so many of the other slaves believed that
he was destined to become a religious prophet because of all the stuff he "saw" or "heard"
(Marcus, Giggie, Burner 233). Due to the fact that Nat Turner was a very religious slave who had
many visions and led a rebellion against slavery, Nat Turner began as an abolitionist as a slave.
His first master was Samuel Turner but, when his master died in 1822, Turner was sold to
Thomas Moore. In the beginning year of 1830, Moore died, and Turner was moved once again to
another slave owner who ended up being Joseph Travis. His original owner was Putnum Moore,
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but he was still a young child. Turner described Joseph Travis as kind and did not have any
complaints against him.
It was amazing how the slaves could think for themselves and design the plan without the
help of outsiders or just people that were not black, which is an idea that many whi...
