Slave insurrection is the attempt of an organized rebellion against an established government. Rebellions were popular events in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Slave owners, who were located in areas of large slave populations, were terrified of slave uprisings. The rebellions in South Carolina (1739), Virginia (1800), Louisiana (1811), and South Carolina (1822) were fuel feeding the inferno that took place in 1831 in Southampton, Virginia. This was the greatest and most infamous slave rebellion of all time. Nat Turner is the man who has been deemed as being in charge of the militia who performed this horrible onslaught of rural white families.
Nat Turner indicated that the "killing spree" began about two hours after dark on Sunday night. The rebellious militia began with eight men who set out to destroy the white race in hopes of forming an entire black nation. The men concocted the idea of a rebellion on Saturday with no well thought out plan to follow. Only the idea of a free nation, ruled by their race, motivated the men to go through with the rebellion. The first victims were Mr. Joseph Travis and his wife and children. Mr. Travis was Nat Turner's master whom he had no complaints about, except that he was his slave. The militia grew at each house they came to. The news of Turner's rebellion grew quickly through the local slave population. The militia, led by Turner, gathered equipment at the house of each victim. They stole money and jewelry that they would need once they had finished their rebellion. They took guns, ammunition, axes, and any other object that could murder an unanticipating victim. .
Nat Turner recalls that he did not kill as many people as his fellow companions. He remembers seeing a lot of the killings from the front lawn or the room where the horrible actions took place. Turner does not recall how many victims his militia slaughtered. He also denies any knowledge of the insurrection in North Carolina, which happened around the same dates as the insurrection in Southampton, Virginia.
