10 powerful times enslaved Africans rebelled to show that slavery was not a choice

Nat Turner’s Rebellion, 1831

Many people know or have heard of Nat Turner, the well-read, and valiant rebel who led one of the most famous slave revolts in American history.

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In 1831, Nat Turner led a bloody uprising in Southampton County, Virginia, he said he experienced prophetic visions ordering him to gain his freedom by force. Turner and his accomplices first killed his master’s family as they lay sleeping, then the small group of about 70 slaves moved from house to house, eventually killing over 50 whites with clubs, knives and muskets.

It took a militia force to suppress the rebellion. Turner and 55 other slaves were captured and later executed by the state. In the aftermath of the Turner revolt, over 200 slaves were killed by white mobs and militias, who became hysterical about slave uprisings. White masters instituted more oppressive restrictions on slave populations, including several states passing laws which made it illegal to teach blacks to read or write.