Nat Turner was born a slave in 1800 and was living on the plantation of Samuel Turner when he began to have visions about personal freedom. He eventually convinced his fellow slaves to join him in an uprising. Unlike most other slave revolts, this one was successful and resulted in the deaths of many white people.
He led a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. His revolution led to the deaths of approximately 60 white people and Turner’s death at the hands of slave hunters.
Nat Turner’s Rebellion is an example of a slave rebellion in the United States during 1831. Nat Turner led a group of 8 to 10 slaves who were planning on overthrowing white people in their attempt for freedom. This uprising was known as “The Southampton Insurrection,” which was one of many rebellions during this period. One significant difference between this revolt and other similar revolts is that Nat Turner led his slaves by example not to be captured and executed by slave hunters. He tried to protect them all, but he could not.
His life and legacy still inspire people today, as they did nearly 200 years ago.
Here are Top 17 Nat Turner quotes you must read
1. “It is evil to keep these people in bondage, yet they cannot be freed. They must be educated! To free these people without education and with the prejudice that presently exists against them would be a ghastly crime.” ― William Styron
2. “I had a vision – and I saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened – the thunder rolled in the Heavens, and blood flowed in streams – and I heard a voice saying, ‘Such is your luck, such are you called to see, and let it come rough or smooth, you must surely bear it.’” – Nat Turner
3. “The most futile thing a man can do is to ponder the alternatives, to stew and fret over the life that might have been lived if circumstances had not pointed his future in a certain direction.” ― William Styron
4. “The manner in which I learned to read and write, not only had great influence on my own mind, as I acquired it with the most perfect ease, so much so, that I have no recollection whatever of learning the alphabet” – Nat Turner
5. “I was struck with that particular passage which says: “Seek ye the kingdom of Heaven and all things shall be added unto you.” ― Nat Turner
6. “I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first.” ― Nat Turner
7. “Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity.” ― Nat Turner
8. “All my time not devoted to my master’s service was spent either in prayer, or in making experiments in casting different things in moulds made of earth, in attempting to make paper, gunpowder, and many other experiments, that, although I could not perfect, yet convinced me of its practicability if I had the means.” ― Nat Turner
9. “After having supplied myself with provisions from Mr. Travis’s, I scratched a hole under a pile of fence rails in a field, where I concealed myself for six weeks, never leaving my hiding place but for a few minutes in the dead of night to get water, which was very near.” ― Nat Turner
10. “Having soon discovered to be great, I must appear so, and therefore studiously avoided mixing in society, and wrapped myself in mystery, devoting my time to fasting and prayer.” ― Nat Turner
11. “Why, I think, as you say, to wit, that they are bad times, and bad they will be, until men are better; for they are bad men that make bad times; if men, therefore, would mend, so would the times. It is a folly to look for good days so long as sin is so high, and those that study its nourishment so many.” ― William Styron
12. “What strikes us as the most remarkable thing in this matter is the horrible ferocity of these monsters.” ― The Richmond Enquirer
13. “You rally would have to be as crazy and schizophrenic as Nat Turner to not be affected; you’d have to have voices in your head louder than those around you to convince you that a slave rebellion was the right, sane response.” ― Mark Ames
14. “That I chose Independence Day as the moment to strike was of course a piece of deliberate irony.” ― William Styron
15. “To a mind like mine, restless, inquisitive, and observant of everything that was passing, it is easy to suppose that religion was the subject to which it would be directed; and, although this subject principally occupied my thoughts, there was nothing that I saw or heard of to which my attention was not directed.” ― Nat Turner
16. “And I think it was a great Frenchman, Voltaire, who said that the beginning of wisdom is the moment when one understands how little concerned with one’s own life are other men, they who are so desperately preoccupied with their own. I knew nothing about you and that boy, nothing at all.” ― William Styron
17. “Though it is a painful fact that most Negroes are hopelessly docile, many of them are filled with fury, and the unctuous coating of flattery which surrounds and encases that fury is but a form of self-preservation.” ― William Styron
Want more great quotes? Check out below!
