1800
3 October 1800
Nat Turner is born enslaved on Benjamin Turner’s farm.
1822
1822
A falling limb kills Samuel G. Turner. His estate sells Nat Turner to Thomas Moore. The purchase price is $450. Nat Turner’s wife and their two children are sold to Giles Reece.
1827
May 12 1827
Nat Turner baptized himself and a ‘wicked’ white man, Etheldred T. Brantley. Brantley is somehow related to either Sally Francis Moore or Luvenia/Lavenia Francis.
1831
February 12 1831
Nat Turner witnesses an eclipse of the sun. The duration of the eclipse was 1 hour and 57 minutes. Turner believes this to be a sign ‘from heaven’ to begin an insurrection.
1831
August 13 1831
A day-long atmospheric phenomenon occurred, during which the sun turned bluish-green. Turner believed this was another sign from God and began planning his revolt.
1831
August 21 1831 – Midday
Hark, Henry, Nelson, Sam, Jack, and Will assemble on an
island in the midst of a reptile-invested swamp near Cabin
Pond. There, they made a fire to cook a shoat (young pig) and sweet potatoes while drinking brandy, awaiting the arrival of Nat Turner.
1831
August 21 1831 – 10:25 PM
Turner passes by the house of Giles Reese and his family.
His wife and children are enslaved there, so he does not attack this farm.
1831
August 22 1831 – 12:00 AM
Nat Turner, using Captain Thomas Moore’s sword, trains his men in military drill using old muskets and fowling pieces found within the Travis House.
1831
August 22 1831 – 3:00 AM
The group reaches the home of Salathiel Francis, where they kill him and shoot at his slave as he escapes.
1831
August 22 1831 – 5:45 AM
Turner divides his command. Hark and six infantrymen head to the Henry Bryant House. Turner and nine men on horseback go to the Catherine Whitehead House.
Turner and his men arrive at Mrs. Catherine Whitehead’s
farm, where they kill her, her mother, her son (Richard), four
daughters, and one grandchild. One daughter escaped into the ‘swamp.’ Turner later admitted that it was at the Whitehead house where he killed his only victim, Margaret Whitehead,
with a fence rail. Harriet Whitehead was the only survivor.
Around this time, Hark and his men arrive after killing Henry Bryant and his family. Nat Turner confirms that the infantry would go to the houses of Howell Harris and Trajan Doyle, and that he and the cavalry would head toward the Porter and Francis houses.
1831
August 22 1831 – 5:00 AM
Part of the group goes to Richard Porter’s house. The
Porter Family had already fled.
1831
August 22 1831 – 6:10 AM
Nathaniel Francis had heard from a young enslaved boy from the Travis Farm, who said, in an excited, stammering manner, “Some folks, some folks have killed all of the white folks.” Francis rides off to his sister Sally Travis’s home to find out what was wrong. Their mother soon followed a different path to her daughter’s house.
A section of Turner’s command arrives at the Nathaniel
Francis house. They immediately kill the overseer, Henry Doyle, and Mr. Francis’s two young nephews. Francis and his mother went into the house seeking Luvenia/Lavenia Francis. One of the family’s servants, Nelson, hid her in an upstairs cubby.
Many enslaved people like Nelson were faced with difficult decisions when the insurrectionists raided various homes on the morning of 22 August. Should they join the insurrection or stay loyal to their enslavers? Nelson decided to remain loyal and try to protect the Francis family. Yet, many other bondsmen decided to join the insurrectionists.
1831
August 22 1831 – 6:50 AM
The eight-months-pregnant Luvenia/Lavenia, now lucid after passing out in the cubby while hiding from the insurgents, comes downstairs. She sees two female chattel slaves going through her clothes. One of them, a young girl named Charlotte, lunges at Mrs. Francis with a knife, only to be stopped by Luvenia’s lifelong servant Easter. Nelson then took Luvenia off in the woods toward the Travis place.
1831
August 22 1831 – 8:00 AM
Turner arrives at Captain John Barrow’s home. An enslaved person had warned Barrow of the insurrectionists’ approach, yet he discounted this. He became truly aware of the danger when Mr. Drewry Bittle arrived, confirming the news. The Captain urges his wife to flee; however, she delays. Barrow is killed while making a furious defense so that his wife and child could escape.
1831
August 22 1831 – 11:40 AM
Nat Turner’s followers reach Jacob Williams’s home. There, they kill Mrs. Williams, three of her children, Mrs. Caswell Worrell, wife of the overseer, her two children, and a visitor, Edward Drewry.
1831
August 22 1831 – 12:00 PM
The group reaches Mrs. Rebecca Vaughan’s home. The insurgents had already killed George Vaughan while he was riding to the Barrow House to pick up his sister and to meet fox hunters. Then they quickly set upon the house and kill Rebecca, her son Arthur, the overseer, and her niece Anna Eliza Vaughan. Rebecca Vaughan is allowed to go upstairs so she can pray for her salvation before being killed. Nat Turner reported that his troops now numbered about 60 men, all armed and on horseback.
1831
August 22 1831 – 12:30 PM
While marching toward Jerusalem, they stopped at the James T. Parker Farm. A few guards are left at the gate, and the rest go up to the house. Instead of recruiting more followers, they drank brandy, and several passed out.
1831
August 22 1831 – 12:45 PM
Turner goes to the Parker House, where he finds his men
disorganized due to heavy drinking. He reorganizes them.
Militia units from Southampton County and Greensville County, Virginia, begin arriving to track down the insurrectionists.
1831
August 22 1831 – 1:00 PM
The Southampton Militia attacks guards at the gate. Turner’s followers become disorganized. Soon, Nat Turner, with the help of Will, Hark, and Nelson, steadies his men. Then they have a brief skirmish in
‘Parker’s Field.’ Although the militiamen were initially repulsed, other militia units arrive on the field. The insurrectionists retreat.
1831
August 22 1831 – 2:30 PM
Realizing that the militia heavily guarded the main bridge to Jerusalem, Turner’s diminished force marches toward Cypress Bridge.
1831
August 22 1831 – 3:00 PM
Turner turns his men southward for a few miles and then north. They pass several farms, including Thomaston. Thirteen-year-old George Thomas had organized his family’s escape just steps ahead of Turner’s command.
1831
August 22 1831 – 6:00 PM
Turner’s command is now reduced to 40 men. They spend the night at Ridley’s Quarter. Confusion during the night prompts many of Turner’s men to run away.
1831
August 23 1831 – 6:15 AM
Turner attacks Dr. Simon Blunt’s farm and is defeated by Blunt’s family, the overseer, two neighbors, and Blunt’s slaves. Hark, one of Turner’s primary lieutenants, is critically wounded during this brief engagement.
1831
August 24 1831
General Eppes organizes a strong force, including Virginia militia and U.S. Army and Navy contingents, to patrol the countryside and capture those thought to be involved. At times, they brutally kill insurgents. The soldiers stopped at some of the sites where Turner’s men had attacked and killed many enslavers.
James Hampden Pleasants, a member of Harrison’s Cavalry Troop and editor of the Constitutional Whig, wrote about the atrocities committed by the insurgents as he found “whole families, fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, sucking babies, school children, butchered, thrown into heaps and left to be devoured by hogs and dogs or to putrefy on the spot.” These scenes prompted the militia units to seek revenge.
Even though “General” Nat is nowhere to be found, several free Blacks who had supported the insurrection still endeavored to revive it. Billy Artis, along with Benjamin and Thomas Haithcock, went to
several farms to recruit new followers; however, no enslaved persons would join the rebellion, as militia men are everywhere. Thomas Haithcock is soon captured. Billy Artis refuses to surrender, and the militia finds him dead, his hat on a stake and a pistol by his side.
Federal forces, Lt. Col. William Worth, three companies from Fort Monroe sent by Col. Robert House, and a naval contingent organized by Commodore Lewis Warrington and led by Commodore Stephen
Elliot of USS Natchez arrive. Marines and bluejackets are gathered from USS Warren and USS Natchez. They travel by the steamer Hampton to Suffolk. Governor John Floyd dispatches more militia units and weapons to Southampton.
1831
August 28 1831
Brigadier General Eppes orders members of the Virginia militia to end the excesses made against the “negro population or face military justice.”
1831
October 30 1831 – 12:00 noon
Benjamin Phipps captures Nat Turner.
1831
October 31 1831
Phipps surrenders Nat Turner to Edward Butts, Deputy Sheriff of Southampton County. Turner is placed in the county jail.
1831
November 3 1831
Governor Floyd receives news of Nat Turner’s capture.
1831
November 10 1831
Thomas Gray has Confessions of Nat Turner copyrighted by Edward J. Lee, Clerk of the District of Columbia.
1831
November 11 1831 – 12:00 noon
Deputy Sheriff Edward Butts executes Nat Turner by hanging.
1831
November 21 1831
The final trial of an enslaved person accused of being involved with Nat Turner’s Rebellion takes place. Ben, who was the 50th enslaved person tried since the beginning of the court cases, is found guilty of insurrection. The estate of his enslaver, Benjamin Blunt, is
reimbursed $400. Governor Floyd wrote in his diary, “There are still demands for arms in the lower country. I could not have believed there was half the fear amongst the people of the lower country in respect to their slaves. Before I leave this Government, I will have contrived to have a law gradually abolishing slavery in the State, or at all events to begin the work by prohibiting slavery on the West side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.”