Leader of one of the bloodiest slave revolts in American history, Nat Turner was born a slave on October 2, 1800, in Southampton County, Virginia. He grew up on the farm of Benjamin Turner, becoming the property of Turner’s brother Samuel upon Benjamin’s death in 1810. Turner’s mother, Nancy, was a native of North Africa who was sold into slavery and arrived in Virginia in 1795. She reputedly attempted to kill the infant Nat to keep him from a lifetime of servitude. Turner’s father ran away when Nat was a child. Turner’s paternal grandmother, a slave named Bridget, schooled young Nat in the Scriptures. Turner was literate, and while Benjamin Turner was a Methodist who instructed his slaves in Christianity, it is not certain who taught him to read. Turner grew up to be devoutly religious, refusing to use tobacco or alcohol, and he began to experience visions in which he claimed to hear the voice of God. After one of these visions in 1821, Turner ran away for 30 days and returned, he…