Editing Nat Turner (section)

==Visions and religious activities==
Turner often conducted religious services, preaching the Bible to his fellow slaves, who dubbed him "The Prophet". In addition to Blacks, Turner garnered some white followers such as Ethelred T. Brantley, whom Turner baptized after convincing him to "cease from his wickedness".<ref>{{cite book |last=Gray |first=Thomas Ruffin |title=The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrections in Southampton, Va. |publisher=Lucas & Deaver |year=1831 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |pages=7–9, 11}}</ref><ref name=":3" />

Turner had visions that he interpreted as messages from God, and which influenced his life. The historian Patrick Breen stated, "Nat Turner thought that God used the natural world as a backdrop in front of which he placed signs and [[omens]]."<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Breen |first=Patrick H. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/892895344 |title=The land shall be deluged in blood: a new history of the Nat Turner Revolt |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-19-982800-5 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |oclc=892895344}}</ref> Breen further states that Turner claimed to possess a gift of prophecy and could interpret these divine revelations.<ref name=":03" /> His deep spiritual commitment served as a significant influence on slaves within the surrounding plantations in Virginia.<ref name="kaye">{{cite journal |author=Anthony E. Kaye |year=2007 |title=Neighborhoods and Nat Turner: The Making of a Slave Rebel and the Unmaking of a Slave Rebellion |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30043545 |journal=Journal of the Early Republic |volume=27 |pages=705–20 |doi=10.1353/jer.2007.0076 |jstor=30043545 |s2cid=201794786 |number=4}}</ref><ref name="akinyela">{{cite journal |author=Makungu M. Akinyela |year=2003 |title=Battling the Serpent: Nat Turner, Africanized Christianity, and a Black Ethos |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3180833 |journal=Journal of Black Studies |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=255–80 |doi=10.1177/0021934702238631 |jstor=3180833 |s2cid=143459728}}</ref> 

Historian David Allmendinger notes that Turner had ten different supernatural experiences between 1822 and 1828. These included appearances of both the Spirit communicating through a religious language and scripture along with the visions of the [[Holy Ghost]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allmendinger |first=David F. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/889812744 |title=Nat Turner and the rising in Southampton County |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4214-1480-5 |location=Baltimore |oclc=889812744}}</ref> While working in Moore's field on May 12, Turner said he "heard a loud noise in the heavens...and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said [[Serpent of Eden|the Serpent]] was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first".<ref name="p11" /> In 1824, Turner had a second vision while working in the fields for Thomas Moore, recalling, "The Saviour was about to lay down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and the great [[day of judgment]] was at hand".<ref>Gray, Thomas Ruffin (1831). ''The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrections in Southampton, Va''. Baltimore, Maryland: Lucas & Deaver, p. 10.</ref> By the spring of 1828, Turner was convinced that he "was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty".<ref name="p9" />

Turner was motivated by strong convictions, at least partly inspired by his religious beliefs, to organize his fellow slaves against enslavement.<ref name="akinyela" /> Historian and theologian Joseph Dreis says, "In connecting this vision to the motivation for his rebellion, Turner makes it clear that he sees himself as participating in the confrontation between [[God's Kingdom]] and the anti-Kingdom that characterized his social-historical context."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dreis |first1=Joseph |date=November 2014 |title=Nat Turner's Rebellion as a Process of Conversion: Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Christian Conversion Process |journal=Black Theology |volume=12 |issue=3 |page=231}}</ref> After Turner viewed the [[solar eclipse]] in 1831, he was certain that God wanted the revolt to commence.<ref name=":03" />

Historian Jean W. Cash notes that despite Turner’s revelations being dismissed by some historians for appearing delusional or incoherent, they fit a pattern of leadership focused on a biblical interpretation of prophetic divine wrath.<ref name=":8" /> According to Cash, Turner's visions appear to be rooted in his understanding of apocalyptic Christian theology, where Old Testament themes of revolutionary reform and divine justice are prevalent. <ref name=":8">{{Cite journal |last=Cash |first=Jean W. |date=2019 |title=Nat Turner: fragmented, disjointed, Images |journal=Mississippi Quarterly |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=124 |doi=10.1353/mss.2019.0004 }}</ref> Cash notes that Turner’s self-conception as a prophet was a product of a coherent religious world view at that time, as opposed to him having mental instability.<ref name=":8" />