February 4: Nat Turner

Nat Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an African-American slave who led a rebellion of slaves and free blacks in Southampton County, Virginia on August 21, 1831, that resulted in the deaths of at least fifty white people and at least 200 black people.[2]
Turner led a group of slaves carrying farm implements in a rebellion against slavery. As they went from plantation to plantation they gathered horses, guns, freed other slaves along the way, and recruited other blacks that wanted to join their revolt. During the rebellion, Virginia legislators 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] 

Whites organized militias and called out regular troops to suppress the rising. In addition, white militias and mobs attacked blacks in the area, killing an estimated 200,[3] many of whom were not involved in the revolt.[4]    MORE