Nat Turner's Revolt Part 2 Uprising

With his rebellion now underway Nat Turner and his co-conspirators look to grow their army as they seek to kill every slave holder they can find and ultimately put an end to the vile system for good.


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Ad free version available through Patreon subscription. Available on Spotify and through podcast aps that use RSS feeds. For more information:
https://www.patreon.com/distortedhistory




Please Rate and Review the podcast
To contact me:
Email: [e-mail]
Twitter @DistortedHistor https://twitter.com/DistortedHistor
Bluesky @distortedhistory.bsky.social
If you would like to support the podcast: ko-fi.com/distortedhistory

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gaskell, and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast and program. I didn't give you Mary
Nails and joy and blunder. Look, I'm raveling. I'm not

(00:23):
the bara. A long struggle for freedom, it really is
a revolution. When Nat Turner and his small battery bellious
slaves looked to spark a wider slavery ball in Southampton County,
Virginia in eighteen thirty one, white Virginians were very much

(00:46):
caught by surprise. You see, White Virginians like to tell
themselves that they didn't have to really worry about slaver rebellions,
like say, those in South Carolina, who had experienced so
much on rest in recent years. Did. This was because,
according to themselves, white Virginians were simply more benevolent and
kindly to their slaves. They were on the belief that
they treated their enslaves so well and made their lives

(01:08):
so good compared to the way they enslaved in other
states lived, that they would have no reason to try
and rebel. Sure, they had passed laws out lawing slave schools,
something they did out of fear that the more the
enslaved learned, the better their chances of encountering troublesome things
like abolitionist papers or unedited bibles that contained passages that
could be misconstrued as being against slavery, or even troublesome

(01:30):
documents like say, the Declaration of Independence with its silly
all men are created equal thing. Yet even then, some
in Virginia allowed a handful of slave schools to operate,
showing again how kind of benevolent they were. Additionally, while
they had also passed laws restricting the movements of their
enslaved and how many could gather together at any time,
white slave holders in Virginia still tended to allow religious

(01:52):
gatherings among the enslaved, in violation of their own laws.
It was then, due to such kindnesses that the Virginians,
say olders, believe their slaves had less reason to be discontented,
and thus they did not have to fear a slave rebellion.
I mean, they even gave their slaves Sundays and holidays off. Surely,
such acts of kindness were more than sufficient to keep

(02:13):
their unslaved content and happy. As such, no one anticipated
what would happen on the Travis farm at midnight on
the twenty first, last twenty second of August, when a
small group of enslaved led by Nat Turner, a self
proclaimed preacher and prophet, kicked off the rebellion by saying
all the incompetents on the Travis farmhouse, which included Joseph Travis,
his wife Sally, her nine year old son from a

(02:34):
previous marriage, the sixteen year old teen who had been
hired to help Berkeley farm, and even the couple's infant
child as he rebels made sure to kill each and
every member of the household, regardless of aged gender, because
they wanted to prove that whites were not inherently special
or more powerful than they were, so as to increase
their chances of gaining more recruits from their army, who
they were convinced would have been too afraid to join

(02:55):
unless they proved to them first that whites were indeed
just as frail and easy to kill as any of
them were. This was only the beginning of net Turner's
surve revolt, yet, before we get any further into this
exceedingly bloody tale, first, like always, I want to acknowledge
my sources for this series, which are Stephen B. Oates,
The Fires of Jubilee, Net Turner's Fierce Rebellion, Patrick H.

(03:17):
Breens The Land Shall be Deluged in Blood, a New
history of neat Turner's Revolt, and Kenneth S. Greenberg's Net
Turner's a Surrey Rebellion in History and Memory, And like always,
a full list of these and any additional sources that
I used, will be available on this podcast cofee and
blue Sky pages plus for any who don't feel like
skipping through commercials. An ad free version of this feed

(03:39):
is available to subscribers at Patreon dot com Slash Distorted History.
And with all that being said, let's begin as I
do so, though, I think it's important to note and
warn you that this is probably going to easily be
the bloodiest and most violent episode of this podcast, as
it will feature the deaths of numerous women and children
at the hands of Net Turner's rebellious slaves. That being said,

(03:59):
one has to remember that as overt as these particular
acts of violence are, they are very much happening in
response to the violence of slavery. So while yes, as
horrifying as it is to read Slash here Slash talk
about women and children being killed, we do have to
consider how much worse Are these violent murders than in
saving someone from birth to death? What is the violence

(04:20):
of such an act? Sure, it's not as overt and
immediately violent, but isn't it still violent? Nonetheless, every slave
in this story had their freedom taken away from them
from the moment they were born. Isn't that a violent act?
What about the families have been slaved, who were torn
apart due to husbands, wives, and even children being sold
to some other slaveholder in some other state. Isn't that

(04:41):
a violent act? Sure it is not as bloody as
the events of Nat Turner's rebellion, but it still had
to have caused incredible harm. Are the acts of net
and his rebels that much worse because the violence is
so swift and dramatic than the violence inherent and slavery
that takes place over lifetimes and generations. Which is all
to say that, while I'm not here to say that
all the acts committed by Nat Turner and his rebels

(05:03):
are one hundred percent morally above question, I do think
it is important to keep in mind what had been
done to them and all the others who had been enslaved,
Regardless of what you or I may think about the
decision to spare no one until they had managed to
recruit a large enough army. The fact remains that everyone
inside the Travis farmhouse was now dead. With that done,

(05:23):
the rebels then went to the Travis barn, where Nat
quote formed them in a line as a soldier, at
which point he began drilling and marching them about, likely
mimicking jeous he had seen militia men go through. Choosing
to do this now seems an odd choice, since they
were effectively wasting valuable time when they could have been
moving to assault other farmsteads and gain recruits under the

(05:44):
cover of darkness, when there was less of a chance
of their actions being discovered, thereby allowing them to get
more done before the white safeholders could begin to organize
a response. That being said, this might have been NAT's
attempt to turn them into an army and further establish
himself as their leader. After all, at no point prior
to this moment had they really been following his orders. Sure,

(06:05):
he was a one who had seemed the first come
up with the idea of the Save revolt, but even
with that, it does not seem like he was really
dictating anything beyond insisting that it happened. Now, keep in mind,
as I covered last time, this was not the case
of Net coming up with a plan and the others
just following his lead. Indeed, Nat and his co conspirators
had spent months coming up with various plants and shooting

(06:25):
them down. In doing so, all seemed to have a
voice in coming up with the plants and or turning
them down. These and were some blind followers. In fact,
when Nat had instructed two of his fellows to go
into the Travis home and kill those inside, they had refused,
an Incent insisted that he strike the first blow himself,
which means it's at this point, as they now lined
up and started acting like soldiers, that they really seemed

(06:46):
to for the first time, actually obeying Nat Turner's orders.
This behavior from those closest to Nan under my sy
common narrative other's revolt about a charismatic preacher convincing slash
tricking others to follow him and his religious visions. Really,
we don't know how much influenced Dat's vision, slash, prophecies
and just general religious language had on the others. While

(07:07):
Nat himself definitely seemed to believe he was to violently inspired.
It's not exactly clear if any of the others actually
bought in on this storyline or not. If anything, Nat
Turner's retelling of events suggests that they were anything bought
devoted followers of his religious visions. Indeed, it does not
seem that the others showed any kind of difference towards
Nat until after the rebellion had started. After all, does

(07:28):
not sound like he had dictated a plan to them
so much as they had argued for months over how
they would undertake this revolt, and then when he tried
to order them into the Travis home to kill the
occupants inside, they insisted that since this was all his idea,
he should be the one to strike the first blow.
With that Admund, it feels less like the Authers were
devoted followers of the preacher slash prophet Nat Turner. Instead,

(07:49):
what most likely happened whilst that had saw out and
approached others who, like himself, were intensely dissatisfied and pactially
angry with being enslaved. As such, they weren't some group
of blind and diluted following, but dedicated soldiers to the
cause of freedom. In fact, in addition to Nat running
through some basic military style drills, the others also took
some time to fashion their own sort of uniforms by

(08:10):
creating red sashes to wear and putting feathers in red hats.
In doing so, they were seemingly attempting to make themselves
identifiably look like members of a military force. It was
also during this time that they distributed the gun siate
found in the Travis home, which they proceeded to clean
and load before selecting and settling up horses to use
as they finally a part of the Travis farm. In
doing so, they seemed to have brought young Moses along

(08:32):
so that he could hold said horses. They also, at
this point seemingly forced the still reluctant Jack to go
with them, doing so unlikely no small part as to
ensure that he did not run off and raise the
alarm about what they were doing. As they finally left
the Travis farm, they headed first for the neighboring property
that was owned by the unmarried Wiley Frances, who happened
to be the brother of Samon Wills owner Nathaniel Francis.

(08:54):
As such, Sam and Will were tasked with knocking on
the door and calling out to the sleeping wiley that
they had a letter for him, not suspecting anything while
he came to the door to see when message was
so important that his brother had dispatched two of his
slaves to wake him up in the middle of the night.
When he opened the door, though instead of a message,
while he was seized by Sam and Will, who proceeded
to strike him repeatedly in the head until he died

(09:16):
with yet another white slave holder and dead. Members of
Nat Turner small army searched a property for any additional
guns and gunpowder, while also laying claim to any additional
horses that they needed for those who didn't already have one.
Most importantly, though, they looked to add to their ranks
by trying to recruit from the four adult slaves on
the property and Emery Evans, the free black men who
also resided on the farm. This, however, was easier said

(09:39):
than done. Indeed, one of the enslaved, Red Nelson, would
later claim to have run away in responses he did
not want to get wrapped up in whatever the others
had planned, which may have been true or may have
just been what he told what authorities after the fact
to avoid any kind of repercussions from the revolt. As
for how the others on the farmery acted to their
request to join them in their save rebellion, we really

(09:59):
do I don't know, although we do know that the
freedman Emery Evans opted did not join the slave revolt
as he did not want to risk his own freedom
to aid them in their fight for their own. This
would largely be true of most of the free Blacks
and Nat Turner's rebels encountered during the course of the revolt,
although they would along the way Manatu recruit three or
four freedmen, including one Billy Artist who likely took part

(10:21):
in the revolt because his wife and by extension, their
six children were all enslaved. Regardless of how many, if any,
they were able to recruit here, the rebels next moved
on to the farm where Hark's brother in law, they
Reluctant Jack, resided, a farm owned by one pide Reese.
Upon arriving, they found the doors of the home a mott,
and so they were able to steak inside and kill

(10:41):
Pidee Reese while she was still asleep in her bed.
Her son, William, meanwhile who was awakened by the sons
of his mother being killed, managed to ask the question
who is there before he himself was slain with two
more safeholders Dad, the rebels again repeated the same process
they had at the previous two stops of looking for
any guns and trying to find any recruits from among

(11:03):
the six adult saves that Piety had owned. Meanwhile, Jack,
for all his reluctant still made a point of claiming
a pair of William's socks and shoes for his own.
As the rebels now the part of the Rhees farm
for one owned by the widow Elizabeth Turner, the owner
of some eighteen slaves, and the son was just beginning
to crest the horizon, they and her actions had yet
to be discovered yet, with the son now coming up

(11:25):
as they arrived at the farm around five thirty a m.
Speed instead of silence became of utmost importance, as it
was now only a matter of time before they were discovered,
so the rebels now needed to act with haste. As such,
upon finding the Turner's overseer Heartwell Peebles, they did not
attempt to kill him quietly, but instead opted to shoot
and kill him as quickly as possible. The son of

(11:47):
the gunshot alerted Elizabeth Turner, who was inside the house
with her neighbor, Sarah Newsom. The two confused women then
looked outside to find that there was a group of
visibly armed black men all approaching the house where they
now stood. This was the safeholder's nightmare made manifest. The
two women then attempted to barricade themselves inside the home,
doing so to little effect, as now that the rebels

(12:08):
were no longer attempted to be quiet, Will simply chopped
the door down with a single blow of his axe.
Will and Natan quickly found and killed the two women,
with Will ultimately delivering the killing blows once again, as
he dull Sor that Nana had taken up as a
symbol of his authority, as he had of this rebellion
had proven ineffective at dispatching the womanhood once owned him
and his mother with the killing. Then they began their

(12:31):
usual search, and this time the rebels actually managed to
recruit two of the slaves residing on the Turner farm. Now,
of the two who they added to their ranks, Jordan
and Davy. Davy was apparently a bit unsure about joining.
After all, he hadn't even been dressed for the day,
when all of a sudden he was being told that
not only was he in the midst of a slave revolt,
but he was being asked to take part in it.

(12:52):
Now that the woman who owned him was now dead.
It was all a bit much to process, and so,
according to Young Moses, the Rumbels threatened to kill Davy
if he did not join them, so he did. Now,
at this point, Nat Turner's quote unquote army consisted of
a grand total of fifteen men and nine horses. So
while the army was growing, there were still in desperate

(13:13):
need of more recruits. As keep in mind, Virginia had
a militia force consisting of one hundred thousand men. Now, granted,
this wasn't apparently the fittest of fighting forces, what with
the number of their members not really going out of
the way to properly care for their weapons. Still, even
half trained and poorly equipped, they would have massively outnumbered
the rebels. And that's not even counting the number of

(13:33):
smaller local military groups that were supposed to be ready
to move at the first side of a slave uprising.
Nor is that number, factoring in the regular slave patrols
that rode about looking to capture any slaves wandering about
where and when they shouldn't be, groups that were primarily
tasked with catching runaways, but could easily be redeployed to
counteract a slavery volt which brings us to one of

(13:53):
the main flaws in neat Turner's plans, the fact that
none of them really seemed to have a solid understanding
of the world outside of Southampton, which was a big
reason why they didn't really have the most structured plan
on how this revolt would bring about the end of slavery.
Even more importantly, though, it meant the vastly underestimated the
size of the white population they would ultimately have to
contend with, which was crucial because a big reason why

(14:15):
the Haitian revolution had been so successful was simply due
to the fact that the enslaved had made up such
a large portion of the island's population. As you see,
the enslaved in Haiti in general had outnumbered the whites
by something like fifteen to one. In fact, in the
region where their particular rebellion kicked off, the enslaved actually
out number the whites by more than twenty five to one.
As such, those rebels did not need a huge buying

(14:37):
to be immediately successful. Instead, they were able to overwhelm
their slave masters, and then by proving that they could
be successful, they likely had an easier time recruiting others
to their calls, until it was like a cascading tin
of waves sweeping across the island. Plus, it also didn't
hurt that the French you controlled the island during that time.
War during that period distracted and divided over the French

(14:58):
Revolution and the question of the ex spending their own
rights or not, the visions that were then exploited by
the rebellious slaves on that island. Such a situation, however,
did not exist anywhere in the United States. Indeed, in
eighteen thirty one, while Virginia had the largest enslaved population,
whites still a number there and saved by three to two. Meanwhile,
whenever divisions and disagreements may have existed within Virginia's white population,

(15:22):
all that ceased to matter upon being faced with a
slave rebellion, as it would all be unified in an
effort to put it down. So while Nat Turner's rebels
had not been discovered yet, it was only a matter
of time before they were, at which point they would
be faced with a powerful and energized response from the Whites.
Pressure was mounting then for Nat and his allies to
move quickly if they had any hopes of being victorious.

(15:43):
They needed to strike swiftly to terrify the Whites so
as to delay and muddle the response, and they also
needed to move swiftly to add to their ranks so
as to ensure that they wouldn't be unnumbered when they
actually met some real resistance for the first time. With

(16:13):
their work at Elizabeth Turner's farm done, Nat Turner's small
slave army now split up, with the nine on horseback
riding off for Catherine Whitehead's farm, while the other six
headed for the home of Henry Bryant, where they proceeded
to kill Henry, his wife, Sally, and their toddler before
departing to join the others. Meanwhile, at the Whitehead farm,
nets mounted soldiers upon arriving, found Richard Whitehead, a Methodist

(16:35):
preacher working out in the cotton field. Now, Richard had
no idea whatsoever about what was transpiring that morning. As such,
when he first saw the nine black men ride up
on horseback. He apparently approached them when they beckoned him over.
It was only at the last minute that the Methodist
preacher seemed to sense that something was amiss. By then, though,
it was already too late, and so he too fell

(16:56):
to Will's axe. The rebels and made their way over
to the Whitehead house proper, where Richard's mother, Katherine, five
of her daughters, and a five year old grandson all
currently were. As they approached, the Remmels caught sight of
someone fleeing through the gardens. When Nat Turner himself gave chase,
though he realized that this wasn't one of the white Heads,
but in a slave servant girl instead. By the time

(17:17):
that Nat arrived at the house and the others were
apparently at work, as Catherine Whitehead was quickly slain as
she was quickly beheaded by a blow from Will's axe. Meanwhile,
Catherine's eldest daughter, Peggy, had fled the home and hidden
behind the cellar doors on the side of the house.
Unfortunately for Peggy, though, as Nat was approaching the home
from a different angle, he was able to see where
she was hiding. Peggy then tried to flee, but after

(17:39):
a brief chase, Nat managed to catch her unsheathing his sword.
Net then attempted to kill Catherine's eldest, but once again
the weapon was too dull for the job, thereby forcing
him to take up a fence rail, which he used
to deal the fatal blow. Catherine's youngest daughter, meanwhile, also
managed to escape the house, with the assistance of a
young enslaved girl, who helped to hide her in a

(17:59):
nearby cornfield. The young Whitehead girl, however, was overwhelmed by
the sounds of her family being killed, and so she
let out a scream of terror. This scream then exposed
her position to the rebels, who quickly hunted her down
and killed her. Two of the other Whitehead daughters meanwhile
hid in a bedroom inside the house, one of whom
was found by the rebels and killed, but the other
haired Whitehead actually remained hidden under a mattress, having been

(18:22):
placed there by one of their slaves, old Hobbard. Now,
as all this was transpiring, the majority of the Whitehead's
twenty five or so slaves, many of whom were women
and children, watched on, stunned. When they were done with
the killing. The rebels then asked two of the adult
males on the plantation to join them, but they were
reportedly afraid of what the Whites would do in response
to this action, plus had also just witnessed some horrifying

(18:45):
violence committed at the hands of these men, and they
were seemingly not eager to participate in it. That being said,
some accounts of the revolt hold that one of these
six or seven adult male slaves that Catherine Whitehead owned
did actually go along with the rebels, only to eventually
be shot upon return to the Whitehead plantation after the
revolt was over. This story, however, seems questionable, given that

(19:06):
this tale claims that the rebellious slaves Bonnie fellso it
laid next to that of Catherine Whitehead, which feels too
poetic to be true, and thus more likely to be
the creation of people who wanted to illustrate succinctly the
fate of those slaves rebel against their masters. Regardless, round
about this time, two other slaves happened to arrive at
the Whitehead plantation. The pair claimed had been out haunting

(19:27):
all night and even reportedly had a dead raccoon in
hand to support this story. Yet, as the pair were
returning home, they had heard the commotion coming from the
Wethead estate, and so had come over to investigate. Taking
the lead and addressing these newcomers was apparently none other
than Davy, the man who at the Turner farm had
reportedly been threatened into joining the rebel army. Now though
the once reluctant Davy was actively looking to recruit these newcomers. Indeed,

(19:51):
Davy would reportly tell Joe, one of the two recently
arrived in slave men, that while he had been forced
to join up, he did not regret doing so. Now
for his part, Joe was apparently hesitant in doing the same,
but he eventually did agree, although according to one of
the Whitehead slaves, Joe did appear reluctant in doing so,
as did his companion, who was also named Nat. Which

(20:11):
brings the numbers of the rebel army up to at
least seventeen, which means this feels like as good of
a time as any to talk about how support for
Nat Turner's rebellion was anything but universal. Indeed, of the
twenty five hundred enslaved residing in Southampton County above the
age of twelve lessen any men would actually take part
in any fighting. Now. I specifically focus on the men

(20:32):
here because it does not seem like Nat Turner's rebels
made any attempt to recruit women into joining them. So
while some women would support the rebels, they made no
attempt to recruit them, which further limited their options. As
for those that they did attempt to recruit and who
refuse to join them, there are a myriad of reasons
for why they did so. Some were caught by surprise
by the rebellion and perhaps would have had they had

(20:53):
more time to think about it. For example, two of
Catherine Whitehead's enslaved, Jack and Andrew, had not been on
the proper when the rebels had arrived, and only returned
after the rebels had departed. They were then understandably surprised
at what they found upon the return, and by the
news that the rebels had left word that they expected
the pair to find and join them upon the pain
of death, a threat that the two men claimed they

(21:14):
took seriously, which, thereby explaining their departure from the property
to join the rebel forces a story that I'm not
entirely sure that I buy, as it feels more like
a tale they told to minimize their involvement in the
rebellion in the hopes of being spared by the whites
when all was said and done, especially since the pair
never actually managed to catch up with the rebel forces. Indeed,
the other enslaved when question claimed that while Jack and

(21:36):
Andrew might have been somewhat reluctant about joining, they also
seemed to be quite attracted to the idea of a
slave rebellion. Others, meanwhile, simply did not seem to believe
that Nat Turners of the army stood a chance for them.
The calculus was simple, and the safer option in this
situation meant throwing their line and with the people who
held them enslaved. They were, after all, the people who
had all the power, the weapons, and ultimately the numbers. Indeed,

(22:00):
when you get down to it, Nat Turner and the
rebels saves weren't just finding their masters, or even just
the slaveholders in Northampton County bought the entire state of
Virginia and even the institution of Savoy itself, which was
in fact backed by the power of the United States
government and its army. Some enslaved, in fact, would actually
work to save certain whites. Indeed, we just saw an
example of this in Old Hubbard, who save Catherine Whitehead's

(22:22):
daughter Harriet. Old Hubbard was then aided by several of
the other enslaved on the plantation. After the rebels had left.
They disguised Harriet and then spirited her away into a
nearby swamp, just in casey rebels returned, which to in
fact did when they realized they had failed to kill
all the Whiteheads. Then there was Tom, a young stablehand
who had fled the property when the rebels had first arrived.

(22:43):
Tom then told pretty much anyone and everyone that he meant,
both black and white, what he had seen, before eventually
being arrested when he arrived at a guard house. Tom,
though would eventually be released and even praised for saving
the lives of so many whites. This was, after all,
the unfortunate reality in many a savy vault, and a
big reason why so many failed before they even reached
the point that Nat Turners had come to, as invariably,

(23:05):
someone out of fear or for their own self interests,
would run off and alert these safeholders, thereby betraying their fellows. Meanwhile,
it seems that some who joined the army did so
under threat, as they apparently worn into the whole killing part.
For example, both that and Young Moses would later note
that some of those in the army were kept under
guard by a hardcore group of loyalists who, in orders
to shoot any who attempted to flee. More than a

(23:27):
few of the says that the rebels approached then seemed
to be unsure of how to react or proceed. Surely
understood why the revolt was happening, but they were still
hesitant when it came to fighting, killing, and more than
likely dying for the cause. Such reactions, however, don't mean
that there were cowards, and nor does it mean that
these individuals were at all content with their lots and slaves,
as Whites would later claim. Indeed, White's safeholders, when all

(23:49):
was said and done, would trumpet the fact that so
few enslaved ultimately joined Nat Turner's army. This, they asserted,
proved how well they treated their slaves and that the
system itself was a good one. The reality, however, is that,
more than anything else, these others simply were caught by
surprise when Net and the rebels arrived. As it were
just not prepared in any way for such a revolt.
Rarely do people just spontaneously rebel. More often than not,

(24:12):
they need to be brought along and prepared for such actions.
Take unions, for example, a recruiter just doesn't show up
in an Amazon warehouse or the like and in one
day manage to unionize the entire workforce, and they certainly
don't show up in first and naunzi strike and then
ask the workers to join them. And keep in mind,
that's just people putting their jobs on the line, not
their very lives. Instead, union organizers take their time, they

(24:34):
talk to people, They sell them on the idea of
the union and what it could mean for them. It's
only then, after laying that groundwork do the organizers attempt
any big moves. The problem with slave rebellions, though, as
we've covered, it's really risky to try and do that.
Ask the more people you talk to and try to
recruit ahead of time, the higher the chances someone either
accidentally or on purpose, informs these safeholders, at which point

(24:56):
everyone who you managed to recruit is probably dead, likely
along with many who had nothing to do with the planning,
all before you even had a chance to do anything.
It was for this reason why nat Turner trying to
keep everything as quiet as possible ahead of time, and
this struggle recruiting was the unanticipated consequence of that choice.
Had the other enslaved to Southampton County been given the
chance to mull over and discuss the idea of a

(25:18):
violent uprising and how that was likely their only true
path or freedom, more potentially would have joined the cause. However,
a big reason why the rebellion was even able to
take place was because that had kept those involved in
the plotting and planning to a relatively small circle. Really,
then there was no sure fire away to do this.
You either bring a lot of people in so you

(25:38):
have a sizeable army, but risk being found out beforehand,
or you keep the whole plan as secret as possible
so that your revolt actually happens, and in doing so
risk others not being ready to join your rebel army. Basically,
slave revaults are hard to pull off. Plus, it also
didn't help that it seems that Natt and his allies
had a bit of bad luck, as in the aftermath
of the revolt there were some slaves too. When questioned

(26:01):
admitted that they did intend to join the rebels when
they arrived on the plantation slash farm where they lived.
It's just the army never reached and or skipped over
that particular property. Basically, it seems these individuals, upon hearing
that a slavey vault was taking place, did not want
to just go wandering around looking for the rebels and
instead decided to wait for the rebels to come to them,
and or they wanted the rebels to prove themselves by

(26:22):
liberating their plantation. As such, it's a bit of bad
luck that Nat Turner's rebels visited some farm slash plantations
where none were ready to join their army, while missing
other locations where they would have found more eager recruits.
For me. Then, the events of the Whitehead Plantation are
illustrated in a lot of ways, as not only do
you potentially see the consequences of their choice do not
tell anyone else about their plans, but you also potentially

(26:44):
see the consequences of their choice do not spare anyone,
as it seems that their decision to kill all the
women and children didn't really do them any favors when
it came to recruiting others. This scene also helps to
bring in to focus the complexity of the rebellion, as
I'm sure many of those listening were disturbed the idea
of these women being hunted down and slane like this
with some kind of slasher flick. At the same time, though,

(27:05):
the fact remains that the Whitehead's own twenty five slaves,
many of them were women and children in their own right,
something that is itself quite monstrous, just in a different way.
Where then, is the line which of these actes worse?
Does them being slave owners justify their murders? And if not,
what does the proper punishment and what other choice anatomy

(27:25):
others really have? These are really the questions you have
to keep in mind when confronted with the sheer level
of violence involved in this rebellion. As the Attorner's army

(28:06):
to bar the Whitehead property, the rebels once again split up.
The plan this time was the half of the horses
would had for the farms owned by Richard Porter and
Theathaniel Francis, while the others would have had for the
homes of Hopewell, Harris and Trajan Doyle. The plan here
was to more or less repeat what they had done
so far, kill the whites and the farms, and then
attempt to recruit their slaves. The horsemen who nat came
along with wood. Notably, only way to Richard Porter's farm

(28:29):
skid passed the home of John Clark Turner, who had
reportedly played with Net when they were both young boys,
suggesting that perhaps that was discreetly making choices of who
not to kill. Indeed, later Onie would explicitly order his
men to not raid one farm as it was owned
by a poor white men who did not mistreat blacks.
As for Richard Porter's property, two white families resided there,

(28:50):
but when the rebels arrived, both families were already gone,
having just fled into the nearby woods thanks to a
black woman who had run up and warned them to run.
Due to this timing, its entire possible that the family
slaves could have potentially stole led the rebel army after them,
thereby ensuring their deaths. They did not do so, however,
something that the white slave holders would later point to
as proof of how kindly they treated the enslaved and

(29:12):
the bonds that existed between master and slave. Doing so
all the while ignoring that four of the five adult
males held in bondage on this plantation chose to join
Nat Turner's growing army. Indeed, according to some accounts, these
four became some of the most anti participants in the rebellion,
thus making this their single most successful recruiting effort up
until this point. As they were lieving the farm, though,

(29:33):
Nat would make the declaration that it was time for
them to reunite with the other half of their small,
yet growing army. It was, after all, now clear that
ward was getting out about them and their actions. Prior
to this, the rebels had taken all the white safeholders
they had encountered completely By surprise, This then was the
first time the occupants of a plantation had escaped them
by fleeing before they had even arrived. For NAT, it

(29:54):
was clear this would increasingly be the case the more
time that passed. Plus there was also the very likely
the fact that with each minute that past, the Whites
would be prepared to mount a response. It would only
be a matter of time before the white safeholders rallied
and struck back at the rebels as such, and no
longer made sense to split up their admittedly small fours.
Prior to this, it had made some sense because there

(30:15):
was still some element of surprise. Therefore, having two groups
moving about Northampton meant they could strike in multiple farms
at once, thereby catching the Whites by surprise while also
increasing their opportunities to add to their ranks. Now, however,
since it was clear that word was out, it seemed
best to present a united front in preparation for whatever
counter attack these safeholders were preparing to launch. That being said,

(30:37):
now it stills in this group of horsemen onto Nathaniel
Francis's farm. This was the home of Sam, one of
the four men who had been with Net from the
very beginning, and also the home of Will, the man
who had been responsible for much of the deaths so far.
A raid here, then was effectively freeing these two men,
much like the initial raid on the Travis farm had
in a way freed both that and hark As were

(30:57):
in doing this, though Neat Turner himself would ride back
Exos to fetch the others who had marched on foot
to the Trajan Doyle and Howell Harris's farms. This group had,
during their time on their own, found and killed Tration
Doyle on the road. They had also on their own
volition visited the home of John R. Williams, who was
not at home at the time, but his wife and
young child were. John Yucien left to investigate the noisy

(31:18):
had heard coming from the Whitehead house, only to return
to his own home to find that his wife and
young child had suffered the same fantasy Whiteheads, at which
point John grabbed his horse and raced off towards the
headquarters of the Governor's Guards in Murphy'sboro, North Carolina, intending
to rally them and ride back to seek his revenge
as for the Harris Plantation. On their way there, they
would be informed by a local enslaved individual that Howell

(31:40):
Harris wasn't at home, So when nan A arrived to
rejoin this part of his army, it was decided that
they would just stip over the Harris Plantation and instead
moved to rejoin the Mountain Rebels who had headed over
to Nathaniel Francis's farm. Now, Nathaniel Francis was twenty six
years old at this point, and despite the fact that
he had supposedly played with that turner when they were
both young boys, does not seem like he ever questioned

(32:01):
the institution of slavery. Instead, he simply seemed to accept
it and the role he needed to play in such
a society to be successful, a role that he seemed
to be playing quite well as at the time of
the rebellion, Francis controlled some seven hundred and ninety acres
of land after a recent purchase of four ndred and
thirty acres, while also hiring an overseer to manage his
fifteen slaves, two of whom being Sam, one of Natsco conspirators,

(32:23):
and will the man who had willed the acts that
had taken the most lives so far. Now and I
seem much like the one that had occurred at the
Williams farm, Nathaniel would be alerted by a young and
slave boy who just come from the Travis farm that
all the whites of that particular property had been killed.
Nathaniel at this point, however, clearly did not yet understand
what was happening, since the boy had apparently not identified

(32:43):
the parties responsible for these deaths, likely because he himself
did not know. As such, Nathaniel had left his farm
in the company of his mother to see if there
was anything they could do at the Travis farm to
help perhaps thinking that the boy was exaggerating in doing so.
This left on the farmers Overseer Doyle, Anniel's ninety year
old pregnant wife, Lavinia, and his two young orphaned nephews,

(33:03):
John and Samuel Brown, aged eight and three, none of
whom seemed to suspect that there was a save rebellion underway.
As such, they were caught by surprise when the rebels
arrived with the two young boys playing out in the lane,
and thus were the first to die. Overseer Doyle, meanwhile,
upon realizing what was happening, ran to the house to
warn Lavinia before attempting to make his own escape. As

(33:25):
he attempted to flee, though Doyle was shot and killed. Meanwhile,
Lavinia hid herself in the closet like space that served
as her home's attic. The problem for Lavinia, however, was
that since two of the rebels came from this very farm,
they knew there should be more whites than those he
had slain so far. Sure, they had been told that
the one they wanted to kill the most, their supposed owner, Nathaniel,
had recently left with his mother, but this still meant

(33:47):
his wife had to be somewhere in the home. The
rebels and proceeded to search the residence, but before they
could reach the closet like attic space where Leavenia had
concealed herself, one of the other slaves, read Nelson, told
the rebels that he had seen Lavinia flea, suggesting as
he did, that perhaps she was hiding amidst the tall
cabbage in the garden. And yet again then we see
some of the enslaved actively working to save some white slaveholders.

(34:09):
At the same time, though we also see the other
side of this coin mike. For example, the two female Says, who,
believing that the people who hadn't saved them were now dead,
set about claiming Lavania's clothes for themselves. Additionally, for the
adult Malesays on the farm joined the ranks of the
rebel army, although according to one account, three of these
individuals were not the most enthusiastic of recruits as a war,

(34:30):
reportedly all under fifteen years old and also kept under
guard during the course of the revolt. If the tales
are true of the rebels keeping some individuals in their
ranks under guard, this force recruiting is somewhat curious, as
I'm not really sure what their goal would have been here,
but I can see some potential possibilities. For one, they
simply could have been hoping that these individuals would have

(34:50):
eventually seen the wisdom and righteousness of the rebellion and
become active participants. Alternatively, they could have been hoping that eventually,
when push came the shove, these individual jewels would have
no other choice but to take part in the fighting,
if for no other reason than to preserve their own lives.
They also could have simply been looking to make their
army appear larger than it actually was, as by doing

(35:11):
so they would have been frightening their wide oppressors and
in doing so, potentially discouraging their resistance, while also making
joining the army to those who weren't already on board
seemore appealing, as the larger the army was, the better
the chances they had, and thus the more likely others
would be willing to join. Regardless of the reason, the
rebel horsemen, after the Francis Farm would head off to
Peter Edward's sizeable plantation. In doing so, they found the

(35:34):
elegant home abandoned after the slaveholding residents apparently learned of
the rebellion, the rebel Zoe would manage to recruit another
three enslaved to join their ranks. They were likely aided
in this by one of That's original co conspirators, Nelson,
who is believed to have potentially hailed from this plantation
and thus would have been known to these men after
toiling beside them for years. From here they rode onto

(35:54):
the home of one John T. Barrows, who, once, like Edwards,
had been alerted that a slave revolt was taking place.
Unlike Edwards, however, Barrows had not fled. Barrows, you see,
was a veteran of the War of eighteen twelve, and
so he repaired the fight the rebellious slaves. Indeed, when
the black men on horseback began running towards his residence,
Barrows took a shot at them. This moment then represents

(36:15):
the first time the rebels, says, were shot at during
the course of this revolt. While this was likely a
bit of a shot, they did not flee. Instead, at
least one, if not several rebels returned fire. None of
their bullets hit, however, and Barrow actually managed to fire
another shot from his musket before the rebellious says were
able to close in on him. With no time to
reload these safeholder attempted to use his musket as a club,

(36:37):
but the rebels were simply too many, and so both
Tom Barrow and his brother in law George Vaughan, despite
their attempts to fight the rebels, died like all the rest. Now,
as all this was happening, Mary Barrow was attempting to flee,
but as she tried to run, and enslaved woman named
Lucy grabbed her, apparently intending to hand Mary over to
the rebels. One of the other saves, however, came to

(36:58):
Marry Barrow's, aiding her from Lucy and helping her to
hide in the woods. Thanks to this other and a
save woman's intervention, then Mary Barrows would survive, while Lucy
would be executed for her actions. Once they were done
at the Barrow farmed, the rebel cavalry force continued on
to the north, aiming for the plantational one captain knew
at Harris the goal here was twofold First. Harris was

(37:19):
one of the largest slaveholders in the region, as he
owned thirty one individuals, meaning it was a location ripe
with potential recruits. Which they desperately needed now that the
Whites were learning of what they were up to and
were starting to fight back. Plus likely of equal importancy,
plantation lay upon the road to Southampton's county seat of Jerusalem,
which was a target for the rebels, as at the

(37:40):
very least it was a place where Nett believed they
could procure additional firearms and ammunition, which would be crucial
for their army. The capture or rating of Jerusalem is
one of the few goals that we can really point
to the rebel slaves having as Beyond that, it's unclear
what their intentions were. It's possible that at some point
they plant to negotiate with the Whites, perhaps using people
they had captured along the way, once their army had

(38:02):
grown large enough to allow that shift in tactics. Others, meanwhile,
have suggested that their intention was to make their way
to the Great Dismal Swamp that lay some twenty miles
to the east of Jerusalem, as it was a location
that they would potentially be able to disappear into to
set up or join a maroon community that existed therein
with maroon communities being these little outposts set up by

(38:22):
runaway slaves and isolated locations where they formed their own
societies and militaries, design and resisting their wet oppressors. Had
they done this, the rebels could have used a great
dismal swamp as a stronghold from where they could launch
attacks against the surrounding areas of Virginia and North Carolina.
In the meantime. As the rebel calvary road toward the
Harris plantation, they again found it abandoned. It was there, though,

(38:44):
that around nine thirty am, that Nat Turner and the
rest of the rebels caught up with them. As they arrived,
Nat was apparently greeted warmly by his cavalry force, and
there was even reportedly some cheering. This seems reasonably believable,
because regardless of how he was viewed by the general
enslaved population before the rebellion, the fact was now he
was the leader of a slave revolt that had so

(39:05):
far been highly successful. What had started with a mere
seven individuals had now turned into a small military force
of forty or so men, who, over the course of
that morning had slain thirty or so white safe olders
with little to no resistance. Yet, while his own men
were apparently excited to see that Turner. The same does
not appear to hold true for these thirty one slaves
residing on the Harris plantation, as at least some of

(39:27):
them had to have been the kind of teenage boys
and adult malesy Rebels were looking to recruit into their army.
Yet it does not appear that they came away from
this plantation with any additional recruits. Their struggles to grow
their army was not great news for their long term success. Additionally,
they also probably weren't moving with enough haste to be
successful either. Now that the seeker was out and families
were starting to flee before they arrived, speed was of

(39:50):
utmost importance, as it was only a matter of time
before these fleeing individuals brought word to those who could
begin rolling in military response to the revolt. To be
fair to the they were primarily slowed in their progress
by the simple fact that they had to pause in
every home to search it for guns, ammunition, and gunpowder,
because it had not started out with any weapons of
their own outside of a few hatchets and axes. The

(40:12):
thing was, while conducting these searches for weapons, more than
a few of the rebels also took this opportunity to
search for stuff like alcohol or the kind of quality
foods that only white people ate and never shared with
their slaves. These searches and the subsequent indulging in whatever
bounty they might have found, was then not very conductive
to the rebellion. Indeed, when nat rode up to the
Harra's home, he found a number of his soldiers otherwise

(40:34):
occupied after breaking into the Harras family brandyseller as they
rolled out several barrels of the liquor and were now
enjoying it. Such an act, while understandable, was a waste
of time that the rebels could ill afford, as to
more time they lost to such for avalities, the more
time the whites had to organize their response. Indeed, at
that moment, Jerusalem was being thrown into a panic thanks

(40:55):
to the fleeing white families who brought the alarming news
of what was happening. Finally, long last, their worst fears
had come to pass. There was a savey vault, and
it was happening in their own little Virginia community. Church
bells were soon set the ringing out the alarm as
men were dispatched on horseback to start rallying the militia,
in particular where was set up to Petersburg and Richmond,

(41:16):
warning them of a save insurrection and requesting the men
in arms necessary to crush the revolt. Meanwhile, those remaining
in town said about barricading the bridge over the Notaway
River as they watched a road leading the town, that
they expected an army of five hundred Rebelliousays to soon
be marching up, as rumors had, of course greatly inflated
the numbers involved in the revolt. The Remels, however, weren't

(41:36):
coming to Jerusalem, at least not yet. While they were
generally heading in an eastern direction towards Jerusalem, they did
not appear to be ready to attack Southampton's county seat
just yet. Instead, in the meantime, they headed for Levi
Waller's plantation, as it was next in their path. Now, Levi,
like an increasing number of the other Southampton residents, had
also heard that a Savy vault was taking place. Indeed,

(41:59):
a messenger had rea come biased property bearing a report
that quote, the Negroes have risen up and are murdering
the whites and are coming in response Levi ordered that
his children be brought home from the schoolhouse on his property.
In doing so, he also gave orders to the schoolmaster,
one William Crucker, to begin loading their guns. Before he
could do so, however, the rebels arrived. The two men,

(42:20):
since they were both outnumbered and out gun chose to
run for their lives. In doing so, though they left
Weller's wife and the children undefended. The rebels then proceeded
to kill his wife and ten of the children on
the plantation. One young girl, however, would survive by hiding
her sophene fireplace, plus two of Levi's sons would also
escape with their lives. Here again, then we see the

(42:41):
result of the rebels planned to kill all the white
save orders men, women, and children, doing so because they
believe this was the only way to destroy the fear
of the enslaved, had advice in practice, though it seems
very questionable how successful this tactic actually was. Indeed, we
see two distinct reactions to the bloodshed that took place
on this plantation. As you see, Levi Waller, after fleeing

(43:02):
for his life, actually sneaked back to his home to
see what had happened to his family, and was then
from this concealment that Levi saw one of these saves,
who had been off the property when the rebels arrived
return Now listen, save man repoortly did not seem the
least been bothered by the slaughter that had taken place there. Indeed,
even though he opted to not join the rebel army,
this man would still sherry drink with them before taking

(43:23):
one of Levi's horses and running off in apparent good spirits.
This and slaved men at least did not seem particularly
bothered by the killing of eleven women and children. On
the other hand, though Sam, one of the members of
the rebel army, was witnessed with tears in his eyes
as he was invisible distress, likely in response to the
violence he had just witnessed. You have to wonder then,
how many opted do not join the rebels because of

(43:45):
such actions. But the question then becomes who do you
spare in what do you do with them? Regardless, the
rebels were still far from done, as that now ordered
them to continue on towards Jerusalem. Indeed, they seemed to
pick up the pace at this point, as that ordered
the best armed and those who had proven themselves willing
to kill to take the lead. As the army pressed on,
then this what passed for their lead force was tasked

(44:08):
with carrying out rapid raids on the farms that they passed,
killing any one who were stole around at this point, which,
seeing as how it was round midday, meant that they
were predominantly women and children. As the army progress, they
also managed to find a couple more recruits. One such recruits, Stephen,
had been out working with the man who owned him
when the rebels arrived and killed said individual. With his

(44:29):
owner now dead, the rebels spoke with Stephen and managed
to convince him to join them. The army. As they
were marching down the road also happened to encounter and
and save man named Moses, who was out and about
for some reason that morning, and he too would join up. Meanwhile,
they also recruited a man named Nelson, whose owner an overseer,
would both later claim that they believed Nelson had known
about the rebellion ahead of time and even had intentions

(44:50):
of killing them. This despite the fact that both men
had obviously not been killed during the rebellion. Regardless, the
rebels would continue to press on, but in doing so,
they did not seem to be moving at the kind
of pace to satisfy their leader, Nat Turner. As after
a raid on Rebecca Vaughan's plantation that resulted in the
death of Rebecca, her daughter, and her teenage son, Nat
seemed to be in even more of a rush to

(45:12):
reach Jerusalem, which makes sense, as again, the longer they
took to get there, the better the chances that the
Whites would organize a defense, especially since the county seat
was a logical place for them to try and defend. Indeed,
as we've already seen, such defenses were already being set up,
so if the rebels hoped to get the additional arms
and ammunition that they believed were in Jerusalem, they needed

(45:33):
to strike as soon as possible. Now whether any of
the others felt the same anxiety, we don't know. After all,
on the surface, at least, everything seemed to be going
their way. Sure, Hark's brother in law, Jack had left
at some point during the morning's events, and sure they
weren't always successful in their recruiting efforts, But even then,
the initial seven men who had started the rebellion on

(45:53):
the Travis farm had since ground to a force of
some sixty to seventy men. Meanwhile, they had killed nearly
five dozen and white safeholders, more than had been killed
in any other saving vault in the US, although while
doing so with little to no resistance from these safeholders. Yet,
while some of the army were likely growing confident, Nat
remained focused on reaching Jerusalem as fast as possible. However,

(46:16):
their constant need for more recruits was apparently enough to
convince him to halt their advance and take a brief detour.
As you see, some of the members of his army
had relatives living on the James Parker farm who they
believed they could recruit to the cause. Turner then allowed
the main body of his army to break off from
the road to Jerusalem and traveling half mile out of
their way to visit the farm while he waited with

(46:37):
seven to eight rebels back on the road. Nat then
would wait here for his army to finish their raid
on the farm, likely expecting them to return fairly soon
with several more recruits in tow. However, as minute after
minute passed, Nat couldn't help but feel increasingly impatient. They
had to get moving to reach Jerusalem. Before the once
could mount these sort of defense his small army could

(46:57):
not overcome. Eventually, Nat grusome tired of this delay that
he left the small group he had been waiting with
to go and see what was taking the other so
long and to get them moving. Indeed, as it turns out,
NAT's intervention was quite necessary, as his rebel army had
found Parker Stockholm brandy and gotten let's say, distracted as
a result. Where still was the fact that no sooner

(47:18):
had Nat departed from the seven or eight rebels he
had been waiting with on the road than he forces
some six in or so whites led by one Alexander
Pete arrived. PC personally owned thirty one slaves, making him
one of the major safeholders in the region. Plus he
was also a magistrate, both of which many held a
relatively high position in Southern society, and also wielded quite
a bit of wealth and power, both of which had

(47:40):
likely helped him organize his force of six in or
so white men to pursue the rebel slaves. Indeed, this
was just one of the hastily organized white militias that
had been roaming about Southampton following in the wake of
the rebel army, finding the death and destruction they had
left behind. Over the course of the morning, then Pete
and his men had time and again stombe across one
of the fifteen or so homesteads that the rebels had raided,

(48:01):
and in doing so found the bodies of the sixers
so whites that they had killed, many of whom being
women and children. As they did, Pete and his men
grew increasingly enraged, but also fearful of those who they
were following. As for these seven rebels that Nat had
left behind on the road by the gate leading to
the Parker farm, as soon as they saw Pete and
his forces six and or saw our men, they made

(48:23):
no apparent attempt to stand and fight, nor did they
go after Nats so as to warn him and the
rest of the army that the anticipated and feared white
response had at last arrived. Instead, they simply scattered, running
for their lives. Pete and his men, though, did not
even bother trying to chase down these runaways, as they
were clearly not the main body of whatever armies says
it had been responsible for all the death and destruction

(48:44):
they had witnessed on the way here. Instead, Pete and
his men started riding down the road to the Parker farm,
correctly assuming that the true rebel army had to be there.
As they did, Pete made sure to order his men
to not fire until they got within thirty yards of
the enemy. The reason for this was simple, he wanted
to make sure their shots actually accounted for something. This

(49:04):
was important because once they fired their guns, they were
going to be vulnerable to a counter attack, as keep
in mind we are very much in the era of
these slow loading musket type weapons. Pete's men, however, did
not in general listen to his advice, with many instead
firing at the rebels from one hundred yards away. As
a result, these opening shots had little effect outside of
alerting the rebels on the farm of their arrival, although

(49:27):
their shots would seriously frighten Pete's horse, causing it to
race away from the others in its terror of the
sudden noise, because Pete had not been prepared to try
and restrain the animal at that moment. As for the rebels,
according to NAT's later confession, they were also visibly terrified
by the sudden, unexpected arrival of the white militia men.
They had, after all, so far faced no serious resistance

(49:48):
at any of the farms and plantations they had attacked. Here, then,
was the first real challenge that they faced. The thing
was the whites attacking them were clearly just as terrified
of the rebellious slaves as they were them. As In
addition to panicking and firing early, Nat Turner would also
note that even as he was shouting for his men
to rally and fight back, half of the men who
would come to attack them were already fleeing A dedicated

(50:10):
core the rebel saves, with the help of NAT's leadership,
did not break and flee at this first sign of
real resistance. Indeed, as he formed up and prepared to
strike back, this group's spirits would be further bolstered by
the lack of unity displayed by the small white force
attacking them. Now, the white militiamen would manage to fire
another volley as the rebel army closed within fifty yards
of their position, but in doing so they left themselves vulnerable,

(50:32):
as there was no way they were going to be
able to reload before the rebels were upon them. As
a result, the white militiamen simply turned and fled, so
while a couple of the men would be knocked off
their horses and attacked by the rebels, the main body
on the militia fled back towards the road. The fleeing militiamen, however,
would be in lock because as they were running for
their lives, another militia force that had also been tracking

(50:53):
the rebels happened to arrive at just that moment. This
let his militia force then responded to the scene by
opening fire upon their rebellious slaves who had been pursuing
the other militia force, thereby putting a stop to said pursuit.
This moment was crucially caused under the rebels, including nat
Turner himself, seemed to realize what had actually happened. Instead,
they believed the initial retreat had been faked to lure

(51:14):
them into this trap. Matt then was left with the
impression that this was a more skilled and resilient force
than they actually were. As a result, he did not
try to press to fight any further. In doing so,
he and the rebels missed the potential opportunity to break
and defeat this latest militia force, just like they had
the first one. That had come against him. Had the
rebels simply realized they were fighting two to stank White
militia forces and they had already broken and set one

(51:37):
force running, they potentially could have been inspired to fight
and potentially defeat this group as well. Such a victory
would have provided a major morale boost for the rebels
and might have even netted them some additional weapons for
their arsenal. Instead, this became a major bow for Net
and his rebel army, as they turned and fed into
the dense woods that ran along the Nottaway River. This
would prove to be a major defeat for the rebels,

(51:58):
as before diverting towards the Parker, their army had consisted
of some sixty to seventy men, and now they had
just twenty left. These losses, however, most likely were from casualties,
as while the Whites would later claim they had killed
seven of the rebels in the clash that would dispute this,
most of their losses then were simply the result of
people running away and either being unable to find the

(52:18):
others or deciding they had enough. For example, they lost
the seven or so who had been waiting back at
the gates of the property who had fled when they
first saw the Whites running up. They also lost a
number who had gotten drunk after indulging in the Parker's
brandy supply. These men, then, when the fighting started, simply
and drunkenly stumbled off into the woods, while others just
ran either the first sight of the Whites' arrival or

(52:39):
in response to their so called counterattack. Granted, some of
those who ran away were likely never going to participate
in the fighting anyway, as this likely included those who
had been coerced and or forced into joining the ranks,
so it makes sense that they took this first opportunity
to flee. Meanwhile, arguably more important than these departures was
the fact that five or six and that's best and
most reliable men who had actually taken part in the

(53:01):
fighting were wounded as a result. Yet, despite all this,
Net was still determined to carry on. Indeed, he kept
his eyes set firmly on j Erusalem now though he
was intending to attack the town from the rear, as
clearly the Whites now knew about him and his men
in which road they were traveling down. As Sachi intended
to leave the road, they were watching, so as to
try and get around the town of whatever defenses they

(53:22):
had set up along the road, so that they might
strike at the county seat from behind, which, as it
turns out, was a particularly good plan. Considering that his
news reached Jerusalem about the clatch at the Parker farm,
most of the white men in town headed off for
the Parker property, a move that left very few behind
to guard the town and the women and children therein. Yet,
before Nan attacked the county seat, he wanted to rally

(53:44):
back together a number of the men who had fled
the Parker farm. However, all he and the others managed
to find were two or three men who hadn't run
very far were still. The only thing these two or
three men knew about what happened to the others was
that they had quote him dispersed in every direction. With
his army now apparently hopelessly scattered, not reluctantly abandoned his
plans of attacking Jerusalem, instead opting to turn back from

(54:06):
whence they had come, believing that a number of those
who had run had returned to the only homes that
they knew. In doing so, he also intended to pay
a visit to the other plantations they had yet to
go to, hoping to find additional recruits. Basically, nat Turner
was looking to rebuild and even expand his army before
making another attempt upon the county seat. As the remaining
rebels turned away from Jerusalem intent on searching this as

(54:27):
of yet untouched part of Northampton County, they found no
more white slaveholders to kill, although there were apparently a
few close calls, as a couple of families managed to
escape just before the rebellious slaves arrived. This notably included
the family of one fifteen year old boy named George H. Thomas,
who somewhat surprisingly would go on to serve as a
general in the Union Army during the Civil War. Indeed,

(54:49):
Thomas would play a crucial role in the battles at
Chickamaugua and Chattanooga, in addition to destroying John bell Hood's
Confederate army at the Battle of Nashville. As such, by
failing to reach the Thomas family on this day, nat
Turner's rebels unintentionally helped to ensure Savory's eventual destruction. Yet,
while they found no more safe orders to slay, the
rebels would manage to find some more recruits as they

(55:10):
visited these farms and plantations. However, these additions fell short
of replacing what they had lost. You see, following the
clash at the Parker farm, Nat Turner's rebel army only
consisted of twenty individuals along the way to the Thomas
Ridley plantation, though they must have either managed to recruit
or come across some of those who had scattered after
the battle, as by the time they reached the Ridley
property they had gained another sixteen men. Now, the reason

(55:33):
why the rebels had targeted the Ridley plantation was because
it was the home of some one hundred and fifteen
slaved persons, forty of whom were young men who fit
the description of the type they were looking to recruit
into their army. This then, was a prime place to
replenish and grow their army. Unfortunately, the recruiting troubles continued,
as out of the forty eligible men on the plantation,

(55:54):
they only managed to recruit four, which meant the army
was now up to forty men, which was double one
they had after the clash at the Parker property, but
still half of what they had before that. Unfortunate series
of events. That being said, I can't help but wonder
what would have happened had they visited this plantation with
the roundabout eighty men they had previously. As while I
can't say for sure it would have changed things, I

(56:15):
wonder if they would have had more success recruiting had
their army been larger. I mean, you would think that
the larger their army was, the more appealing it would
be to joint because at the very least it would
appear that their chances of success were better. Think, for example,
how much easier it is for winning sports teams to
recruit star players than it is for bad and er
teams that are rebuilding. You see it time and again

(56:36):
where players are willing to go to certain teams where
they think they will be successful over someplace that doesn't
have that reputation, which is why you often see bad
teams quote unquote overpaying for players because they had to
attract them one way or another regardless. As Naturnist's army
was moving about Northampton searching for more white safe holders
to kill and for more enslaved to recruit white militia men,

(56:56):
including a group led by one William Parker were also
patrolling the area looking for the rebels. Indeed, this group
would fight and follow the trail of the rebel army,
yet they failed to catch up to them on this day.
Oddly enough, as darkness fell and both sides looked for
someplace to stay for the night, it turns out that
Nat Turner's rebellious slaves and a group of white militia
men who were hunting them would end up spending the

(57:17):
night on different parts of the same plantation. You see.
Nat and the others would arrive at the Turner plantation
fairly late in the day, and so they decided they
would take advantage of the sizable and familiar slave quarters
there for the night. As they were doing so elsewhere
on the Turner's land, a white militia force would take
over and barricade some of the main plantation buildings. Now,
at some point during this night, both sides would become

(57:38):
aware of the other's presence. For his part, Nett was
not too worried about this situation, as he figured that
he and his people were safe as long as they
kept deny on the buildings where they knew the white
militia meant to be Basically, they knew where the militia
men were and thus couldn't be taken by surprise as
long as they remain vigilant. On the other side, word
of where Nat Turner's rebels had camped would reach those
who had fled to the safe yo Juruze. However, the

(58:01):
families hiding in the county seat were against the idea
of launching an attack against the rebels for fear of
leaving the town exposed by doing so. Meanwhile, further away
in Petersburg and Richmond, word would reach them of an
ongoing savey vault happening in their backyard. Petersburg would respond quickly,
if halfhazardly, by throwing together a volunteer force that sent
off for Northampton with all speed. In Richmond, meanwhile, Governor

(58:24):
Flood was both alarmed by this news and outraged by
the fact that he needed the approval of the Governor's
Council to dispatch militiamen in arms to respond to this emergency,
a requirement that was especially galling seeing as how all
the members of said Governor's Council were currently out of town,
thereby forcing Governor Floyd to delay dispatching the militia to
Northampton until his lieutenant governor arrived to give his approval.

(58:46):
While he waited, alarmist reports continued to flood into the
state capitol that suggested slaves all across the South were
rising up. In response, Once he was legally able to,
the Governor would order all of Virginia's militiamen to ready themselves,
while specifically dispatched shi militia forces from Norfolk, Portsmouth, and
Petersburg to march on Northampton. Yet, while he would also
order a cavalry and infantry uniform Richmond to also join

(59:08):
in on this response, he still kept a significant portion
of the militia in reserve to respond to any future reports.
In the meantime, Richmond as a whole would remain in
a state of panic thanks to rumors that claim the
large slave army had been spotted departing from the Great
Dismal Swamp and was now heading in the direction of
the state capitol. The people Richmond then respotted by throwing
up barricades on all the roads into town, while armed

(59:30):
groups started patrolling the streets of the city arresting any
blackster quote unquote unattended. Portsmouth and Norfolk meanwhile, were, if anything,
even more panicked. The mayor of Norfolk, in particular, was
so terrified of visions of massive slave army sweeping across
the state and overwhelming the white militia forces that he
sent word to Fortress Monroe begging for their assistance. As
a result, federal infantry and naval units were also dispatched

(59:53):
for Southampton. Such federal intervention, though was now welcomed by
Governor Floyd, as for one, he thought it made him
in the st They looked bad by having to run
off to the federal government for assistance. Plus, if they
did indeed need such help, which they weren't even sure
if they did or not, Yet he should have been
the one to ask for it, as the governor of Virginia,
and not the mayor of Norfolk. Meanwhile, in nearby North Carolina,

(01:00:15):
those communities who more or less boarded Southampton were also
being warned about the ongoing slave rebellion, and they two
were mobilizing their own forces in response, doing so because
a feud it was only a matter of time before
the rebels would march south and cause their own enslave
to rise up. North Carolina then dispatched their so called
Governor's guards to ride off for Southampton to put down

(01:00:35):
this rebellious slave army. In all, then some three thousand
armed white men were marching and or riding for Southampton,
all in response to the news of Nat Turner's rebellion,
all of which more or less puts the lid to
the supposedly cozy, comfortable, and beneficial paternalistic relationship that slaveholders
claimed they had with their enslaved, because at the first
hint of a rebellion, they all concluded that there was

(01:00:57):
no way this was just an isolated incident involved having
just a few disguntled slaves or ones driven mad by
some illness. Instead, they all assumed it was only a
matter of time before every save in the South joined
this revolt. Indeed, one old man in North Carolina was
apparently so terrified by this prospect that he died of
a heart attack. Meanwhile, unaware of how much of a
panic a small army had created, Nat Turner intended to

(01:01:19):
resume his mission the following day, as he planned to
continue to rebuild his army and then, once he had
enough men, he would finally launch his attack on Jerusalem.
His plans, however, would hate a bit of a stag
that morning before dawn, after his guards, believing they had
seen some movement on the plantation, raised the alarm that
they were about to be attacked. This led to a
panic among the rebel ranks, but Nat kept a cool

(01:01:41):
head and ordered some of his men to go ride
out on a horseback to see if there was indeed
anything to worry about now. They found nothing in their search,
but upon returning with this news, some of those who
had remained in camp mistooked their fellows for a force
of white militiaman and responded by running off in a
blind panic a case of mistaken identity, then turn about

(01:02:01):
half of his remaining men, leaving him again with just twenty.
This was yet another major setback, but Nat was still
determined to carry on with what he believed to be
a special destiny as ordained by God. As such, he
took his remaining staunch rebels and set off under the
light of the full moon to resume their campaign, with
their main goal once again being recruiting more and saves

(01:02:21):
so as to rebuild their army. As such, their first
target on this day would be Samuel Blunt's plantation, where
there were some sixty odd slaves, twenty of whom were
potential recruits. However, the story of how successful or not
these efforts would be and what other trials and tribulations
Nat Turner and his rebel slaves would face will, unfortunately
for now have to remain a story for another time,

(01:02:42):
as next time you will wrap up the detail of
nat Turner's rebellion in all of its consequences. Thank you
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(01:03:04):
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