![]() ![]() His deeds have proven to be an enduring episode that still stirs emotion. His numerous descendants have fanned out from a rural pocket of Tidewater. Nat Turner looms large 190 years after his death. The uncertain identity of those remains invites reflection on the historical mistreatment of human lives and bodies. But available evidence strongly suggests that this sordid tale had a gruesome appendix, and there began the mystery of what happened to Nat Turner’s body, and whether part of it now resides in a lab of the Smithsonian Institution. Many facts, such as the precise number of people who died in the insurrection and subsequent reprisals, will never be known. He was taken to the county seat, then called Jerusalem (now Courtland), tried, convicted and hanged. Turner fled and remained in hiding for more than two months until his discovery and capture by a local farmer. Well-armed militiamen arrived and within two days crushed the revolt. Over the next two days, he and a growing band of rebels hacked and clubbed to death upwards of 55 white people - men, women and children alike.Īlarm spread through the countryside, and the rebels lost the element of surprise. 21, 1831, Nat Turner, a 30-year-old, literate, enslaved preacher, launched a rebellion in Southampton County, intending to strike a fatal blow to the institution of slavery. University of Virginia Libraryīeginning late on the night of Aug. ![]()
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