In 1821, Turner ran away and hid in the woods for a month before becoming delirious from hunger and receiving a vision that told him to “return to the service of my earthly master.”

Turner married an enslaved woman named Cherry, and the couple would eventually have three children — Gilbert, Riddick, and Charlot.

When Samuel died in 1823, Turner was sold to Thomas Moore, and his family was sold to Giles Reese.

Turner received a vision in 1825 of an impending bloody conflict between blacks and whites.

Sometime later, Thomas Moore died, and his widow married John Travis, who sent Turner to work on his land. Turner later said Travis was “a kind master” who “placed the greatest confidence” in him.

During these years, Nat claimed he possessed a gift of prophecy and that he could interpret divine revelations. He also claimed to have had several supernatural experiences. He became a self-proclaimed fiery preacher who believed that God had called upon him to avenge slavery. “I was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty,” he said. His religious ardor tended to approach fanaticism and became more overtly political. He began to exert a powerful influence on many nearby enslaved men and women who called him “the Prophet.”

In May 1828, Turner said a spirit appeared to him, telling him that “the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first.” It also told him that he should lead an assault against Satan’s forces – white slaveowners. He began to prepare and waited for another sign from God about when to take action.

By 1831, Nat’s son was enslaved by Piety Reese on a farm that was near the Travis farm, where Turner was enslaved. In February 1831, just days before Turner approached his future conspirators, Reese’s son John W. signed a note that put Turner’s son up as collateral for a debt that he, Reese, had struggled to pay.

This sign came on February 12, 1831, when Southampton experienced a solar eclipse, indicating God wanted the revolt to commence. He thought that revolutionary violence would force Whites to acknowledge the brutality of slavery and wanted to spread “terror and alarm” among Whites.

Turner soon shared his idea of revolting with five other enslaved men whom he “had the greatest confidence”—Hark, Sam, Nelson, Will, and Jack. Turner and his supporters began strategically planning the revolt, ensuring it went undetected. The rebels decided to keep the revolt small and did not stockpile weapons. Instead, the conspirators accepted Turner’s strategy of ” slaying my enemies with their own weapons.”

Turner began communicating his plans to a small circle of trusted fellow slaves from his neighborhood. These scattered men had to find ways to communicate their intentions without revealing the plot. Turner entrusted his wife, Cherry, with “his most secret plans and papers.”

Keeping the revolt small meant whites were less likely to uncover the conspiracy. However, it also created a new hurdle — how to get enslaved people and free Blacks who had not heard about the revolt to join them.

The original conspirators agreed to begin the revolt on July 4, 1831, but Turner fell ill and had to delay it.

On the night of August 21, with seven fellow enslaved people he trusted, Nat launched a campaign of total annihilation, murdering the Travis family in their sleep and marching toward Jerusalem. As the small army moved through the countryside, 40 men joined them, which later grew to 60, then 70 people.

Less than 24 hours after the revolt began, the rebels encountered organized resistance and were defeated in an encounter at James Parker’s farm. Following this setback, Turner and other rebels scrambled to reassemble their forces. By evening, when they camped at Thomas Ridley’s plantation, their force numbered 40.

In two days and nights, they axed or beat to death 69 white men, women, and children in Southampton County.

On August 23, 1831, Governor John Floyd received a hastily written note from Southampton County postmaster James Trezvant stating “that an insurrection of the slaves in that county had taken place, that several families had been massacred, and that it would take a considerable military force to put them down.”

Doomed from the start, Turner’s insurrection was handicapped by a lack of discipline among his followers, and only 75 Black Americans rallied to his cause. Angry white vigilantes killed dozens of slaves and drove hundreds of free persons of color into exile in the reign of terror that followed. Armed resistance from the local whites and the arrival of the state militia — a total force of 3,000 men — provided the final crushing blow. Only a few miles from the county seat, the insurgents were dispersed and either killed or captured — at least 100 African Americans were killed by whites in suppression of the rebellion.

The trials of suspected enslaved rebels began on August 31, 1831. The trials were held in the Courts of Oyer and Terminer, meaning the suspects were tried without a jury before a panel of slaveholding judges. Accused rebels each had paid appointed defense attorneys, demanded properly drawn charges, and required that the prosecutor present credible evidence that the accused were guilty of a crime. The majority of the trials were completed within a month. Ultimately, 30 slaves and one free Black man were condemned to death. Of these, 19 were executed, and Governor John Floyd commuted 12.

In the meantime, Turner eluded capture, during which time, his wife Cherry was “beaten and tortured in an attempt to get her to reveal his plans and whereabouts.”

“Some papers [were] given up by his wife, under the lash.”

— Richmond Constitutional Whig reported on September 26, 1831

An 1831 reward notice described Turner as:

[He is] 5 feet 6 or 8 inches high, weighs between 150 and 160 pounds, rather “bright” [light-colored] complexion, but not a mulatto, broad shoulders, larger flat nose, large eyes, broad flat feet, rather knockkneed, walks brisk and active, hair on the top of the head, very thin, no beard, except on the upper lip and the top of the chin, a scar on one of his temples, also one on the back of his neck, a large knot on one of the bones of his right arm, near the wrist, produced by a blow.

After hiding for six weeks in Southampton County, Benjamin Phipps, a farmer, found Nat hiding in an earth depression created by a large fallen tree, covered with fence rails on October 30. Once detected, Turner was forced to move, could not elude the renewed manhunt, and was captured. He arrived at the prison in Jerusalem around 1:00 p.m. on October 31. He was examined by James Trezvant and James W. Parker, two of the most prominent political figures in Southampton County. The examination lasted over an hour, and witnesses found Turner “quite communicative.”

Nat Turner’s revolt prompted a prolonged debate in the Virginia General Assembly of 1831-1832. While many statesmen adhered to the Jeffersonian idea that the ending of slavery was desirable, no coherent plan for eventual abolition emerged. Virginia’s sponsorship of colonization of Africa, a popular solution to the problem, in reality, became simply a way to remove free blacks, who were thought to be a bad influence on slaves.

As a result of Turner’s actions, Virginia’s legislators enacted more laws to limit the activities of African Americans, both free and enslaved. The freedom of slaves to communicate and congregate was directly attacked. No one could assemble a group of African Americans to teach reading or writing, nor could anyone be paid to teach a slave. Preaching by slaves and free blacks was forbidden. Spreading terror throughout the white South, other states also enacted oppressive legislation against African Americans.