Slavery & Abolition: Nat Turner's Rebellion

Nathanial “Nat” Turner (1800-1831) was an enslaved man who led a rebellion of enslaved people on August 21, 1831.

This Narrative explores the idea of slavery and abolitionism and can be used along with the William Lloyd Garrison’s War against Slavery and Frederick Douglass’s Path to Freedom Narratives, as well as the David Walker, “An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World,” 1829 and Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 1845 Primary Sources.

A string of recent events has brought the leader of an 1831 slave rebellion back into the news.

Nat Turner is widely regarded as one of the most complex figures in American history and American literature. October marks the anniversary both of his birth and of his arrest as the leader of one of the United States' most famous slave rebellions.

A Credo Reference landing page on Nat Turner's Rebellion. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.

This part of the series presents the reaction by individuals and parties to the continued use of slave labor.

Nat Turner’s slave rebellion is a watershed event in America’s long and troubled history of slavery and racial conflict. This program deftly weaves academic commentary with dramatizations to examine that violent confrontation and the multiple, conflicting ways its story has been told. The earliest source of Turner imagery, The Confessions of Nat Turner, was based on jail cell interviews by a white lawyer and was the first to raise the question that continued to be asked for the next two centuries: Was Nat Turner a brilliant religious leader or a deluded fanatic leading slaves to their doom? With Henry Louis Gates Jr., Vincent Harding, Alvin Poussaint, Ossie Davis, and others. Some content may be objectionable. (60 minutes)