Author Description

Nat Turner (1800-1831) was an enslaved African American who led a rebellion of slaves and free blacks in Southampton County, Virginia on August 21, 1831. His story is the basis for the recent controversial film The Birth of a Nation. The Confessions of Nat Turner is the key primary document supporting historical events. It is a first-hand account of Turner's confessions published by a local lawyer, Thomas Ruffin Gray, in 1831.