October 2, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. He was born on the farm of Benjamin Turner. His mother was taken from Africa while in her teens and was renamed Nancy and his father was a second-generation slave. Nat learned to read and write when he was a child. It was illegal in Virginia to teach a slave to read, out of fear that they would read abolitionist writings and begin revolts, but somehow he learned. Most likely, his master's family taught him. His grandmother, Bridget, had become a Christian and passed on the religion to Nat, which gave him all the more reason to read the Bible. Once he became a Christian, religion and freedom were synonymous in his mind. He believed himself divinely appointed to lead his fellow slaves to freedom. In 1831, Turner decided tat the time had come for him to lead his people out of bondage. On August 21st, he and his 60 followers began by killing Turner’s master, Joseph Travis, and his family. Within twenty-four hours 60 whites had been killed. The revolt was spreading until the main groups of blacks were met and overpowered by state and federal troops. More than 100 slaves were killed in the encounter and 13 slaves and 3 free Negroes were hanged. Turner was captured on October 30th and was executed on November 11th. Although the so-called Southampton Insurrection was quickly crushed and Turner was caught and hanged, it was the most serious uprising in the history of U.S. slavery and virtually ended the organized abolition movement in the South.Denmark VeseyDenmark Vesey, born in Africa in 1767, became a slave to Captain Vesey. With the winning of the lottery in 1800, which totaled an estimated $600 to $1500,Denmark bought his freedom. Although Denmark had his freedom, he never forgot about those who continued to endure the hardships and torture of slavery. It was at this time he that began working as a carpenter to support himself and began planning a slave revolt to free his people. Re...
