Today historian Rick Britton talks about one of the biggest events this week in Virginia history: On November 11, 1831, Nat Turner was hanged.

Born in 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia, Turner was an African-American slave who led a rebellion of slaves and free blacks in Southampton on August 21, 1831, that resulted in 60 white deaths. It was the Virginia slave holders’ worst nightmare. Turner hid successfully for two months. When found, he was quickly tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and hanged.

The aftermath for slaves and free blacks in Virginia was catastrophic:

1) The Virginia legislature targeted free blacks with a colonization bill, which allocated new funding to remove them, and a police bill that denied free blacks trials by jury and made any free blacks convicted of a crime subject to sale and relocation.

2) White mobs attacked blacks in the area killing an estimated total of 100-200, many not involved at all with the revolt. More vigilante groups were organized. Militia enrollment in the state went up.

3) The state quickly arrested and executed 57 blacks accused of being part of Turner’s slave rebellion.

4) Across Virginia and other southern states, state legislators passed new laws to control slaves and free blacks. They prohibited education of slaves and free blacks, restricted rights of assembly for free blacks, withdrew their right to bear arms (in some states), voting, and required white ministers to be present at all black worship services.