Editing Nat Turner (section)

==Early life==
Turner was born into slavery on October 2, 1800, in [[Southampton County, Virginia]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Breen |first=Patrick H. |date=December 7, 2020 |title=Nat Turner's Revolt (1831) |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/turners-revolt-nat-1831/ |access-date=February 21, 2024 |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |publisher=Virginia Humanities}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> Southampton County was a rural [[plantation]] area with more Black people than White.<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Drewry |first=William Sydney |url=https://archive.org/details/southamptonin00drew |title=The Southampton Insurrection |publisher=The Neale Company |year=1900 |location=Washington, D.C. |page=[https://archive.org/details/southamptonin00drew/page/n185 108]}}</ref> Benjamin Turner, the man who held Nat and his family as slaves, called the infant Nat in his records. Even when grown, the slave was known simply as Nat, but after the 1831 rebellion, he was widely referred to as Nat Turner.<ref>''Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory''. Oxford University Press, 2003. Kenneth S. Greenberg, ed., pp. 3–12. According to Greenberg, the trial transcript refers to him on the first mention as "Nat alias Nat Turner" and subsequently as "Nat". Greenberg writes that Thomas Ruffin Gray's The Confessions of Nat Turner, which purports to be Turner's confession and account of his life leading up to the rebellion, was the most influential source of the name by which he is known.</ref>

Turner knew little about the background of his father, who was believed to have escaped from slavery when Turner was a child.<ref>''Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory''. Kenneth S. Greenberg, ed. Oxford University Press, 2003. p. 18.</ref><ref name=":3" /> However, Turner grew up "much attached to his grandmother".<ref name=":3" />

Turner learned how to read and write at a young age.<ref name=":3" /> He was identified as having "natural intelligence and quickness of apprehension, surpassed by few".<ref>{{cite book |last=Bisson |first=Terry |title=Nat Turner |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |year=1988 |isbn=1555466133 |page=76 |author-link=Terry Bisson}}</ref> He grew up deeply religious and was often seen fasting, praying, or immersed in reading the stories of the Bible.<ref name=":5">[[Herbert Aptheker|Aptheker, Herbert]]. ''American Negro Slave Revolts''. 5th ed., New York: International Publishers, 1983. p. 295. {{ISBN|978-0717806058}}</ref>

Benjamin Turner died in 1810, and his son Samuel inherited Nat.<ref name="white225">{{cite book |last1=Gray White |first1=Deborah |title=Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans |year=2013 |publisher=New York Bedford/St. Martin's |page=225}}</ref> When he was 21, Nat Turner escaped from Samuel Turner; but he returned a month later, after becoming [[Delirium|delirious]] from hunger and receiving a [[Vision (spirituality)|vision]] that told him to "return to the service of my earthly master".<ref name="p9">Gray, Thomas Ruffin (1831). ''The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrections in Southampton, Va''. Baltimore, Maryland: Lucas & Deaver, p. 9.</ref> In 1830, Joseph Travis purchased Turner; Turner later recalled that Travis was "a kind master" who "placed the greatest confidence" in him.<ref name="p11">Gray, Thomas Ruffin (1831). ''The'' Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrections in Southampton, Va. Baltimore, Maryland: Lucas & Deaver, p. 11.</ref>

An 1831 reward notice described Turner as:<blockquote>5 feet 6 or 8 inches [168–173 cm] high, weighs between 150 and 160 pounds [68–73 kg], rather "bright" [light-colored] complexion, but not a mulatto, broad shoulders, larger flat nose, large eyes, broad flat feet, rather knockneed [''sic''], walks brisk and active, hair on the top of the head very thin, no beard, except on the upper lip and the top of the chin, a scar on one of his temples, also one on the back of his neck, a large knot on one of the bones of his right arm, near the wrist, produced by a blow.<ref>Description of Turner included in a $500 reward notice in the Washington ''National Intelligencer'' on September 24, 1831.</ref></blockquote>