Editing Nat Turner (section)

== Trial and execution ==
[[File:The_Confessions_of_Nat_Turner_(title_page).jpg|thumb|Title page of ''The Confessions of Nat Turner'']]
Turner was tried on November 5, 1831, for "conspiring to rebel and making insurrection" and was convicted and sentenced to death.<ref>[http://www.brantleyassociation.com/southampton_project/gallery/min_bk_1830-35/index2.html Southampton Co., VA, Court Minute Book 1830–1835], pp. 121–23.  {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111211007/http://www.brantleyassociation.com/southampton_project/gallery/min_bk_1830-35/index2.html|date=November 11, 2017}}</ref><ref>[http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/court/ol_nat.txt "Proceedings on the Southampton Insurrection, Aug–Nov 1831"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160825053727/http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/court/ol_nat.txt|date=August 25, 2016}}</ref> His attorney was [[James Strange French]]. Before his execution, he told his story to attorney [[Thomas R. Gray|Thomas R. Grey]], who published ''The Confessions of Nat Turner'' in November 1831.<ref>Fabricant, Daniel S. "Thomas R. Gray and William Styron: Finally, A Critical Look at the 1831 Confessions of Nat Turner". ''The American Journal of Legal History'', vol. 37, no. 3, 1993, pp. 332–61.</ref> [[James Trezvant]] served on the jury for Turner's trial. Asked if he regretted what he had done, Turner responded, "Was Christ not crucified?"<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Foner |first=Eric |title=An American History: Give Me Liberty |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co. |year=2014 |isbn=978-0393920338 |location=New York |pages=336}}</ref> 

Turner was hanged on November 11, 1831, in Jerusalem, Virginia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nat Turner executed in Virginia {{!}} November 11, 1831 |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nat-turner-executed-in-virginia |access-date=2023-11-13 |website=History.com |date=9 February 2010 |language=en}}</ref> According to some sources, he was [[Decapitation|beheaded]] as an example to frighten other would-be rebels. Historian Adam Thomas found a alternative account of Turner's death within the Black community: Percy Claud stated that his mother, Elizabeth, said Turner was “dragged and whipped to death,” through multiple towns. <ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Thomas |first=Adam |date=February 2024 |title=The Many Deaths of Nat Turner: Contested Historical Memory under Slavery and Segregation |journal=The Journal of Southern History |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=7–9 |via=EBSCO}}</ref> Thomas notes this memory originated with Black Virginians and was built from generational memory and trauma, with Turner’s execution being recalled as a lynching, similar to the treatment of the Blacks during that time.<ref name=":12" /><ref name="NGeo">{{cite web |last=Fornal |first=Justin |date=October 7, 2016 |title=Exclusive: Inside the Quest to Return Nat Turner's Skull to His Family |url=https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/nat-turner-skull-slave-rebellion-uprising |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180710195720/https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/nat-turner-skull-slave-rebellion-uprising/ |archive-date=July 10, 2018 |access-date=July 14, 2018 |website=National Geographic |at=paragraph 7 |orig-year=}}</ref><ref>French, Scot. ''The Rebellious Slave: Nat Turner in American Memory''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 2004, pp. 278–279. {{ISBN|978-0618104482}}</ref>

After his execution, Turner's body was [[Dissection|dissected]] and [[Flaying|flayed]], with his skin being used to make souvenir purses.  <ref>{{cite journal |last=Cromwell |first=John W. |year=1920 |title=The Aftermath of Nat Turner's Insurrection |journal=The Journal of Negro History |volume=5 |pages=208–234 [218] |doi=10.2307/2713592 |issn=0022-2992 |jstor=2713592 |s2cid=150053000 |quote= |doi-access=free |number=2}} "His body was given over to the surgeons for dissection. He was skinned to supply such souvenirs as purses, his flesh made into grease, and his bones divided as trophies to be handed down as heirlooms. It is said that there still lives a Virginian who has a piece of his skin which was tanned, that another Virginian possesses one of his ears and that the skull graces the collection of a physician in the city of Norfolk."</ref><ref name="lightening">{{cite journal |last=Gibson |first=Christine |date=November 11, 2005 |title=Nat Turner, Lightning Rod |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20051111-nat-turner-slavery-rebellion-virginia-civil-war-thomas-r-gray-abolitionist.shtml |journal=American Heritage Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090406063535/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20051111-nat-turner-slavery-rebellion-virginia-civil-war-thomas-r-gray-abolitionist.shtml |archive-date=April 6, 2009 |access-date=April 6, 2009 |quote=}}</ref> In October 1897, Virginia newspapers ran a story about Nat Turner's skeleton being used as a medical specimen by Dr. H. U. Stephenson of [[Toano, Virginia|Toana, Virginia]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |date=1897-10-21 |title=Nat Turner's Skeleton |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/86501603/nat-turners-skeleton/ |access-date=2022-12-10 |work=The Norfolk Virginian |pages=6 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Stephenson acquired the skeleton from a son of Dr. S. B. Kellar; Dr. Kellar claimed to have paid Turner $10 for his body while he was in jail.<ref name=":1" /> After the execution, Kellar had Turner's bones scraped and hung as a medical specimen.<ref name=":1" />

In 2002, a skull said to have been Turner's was given to [[Richard G. Hatcher]], the former mayor of [[Gary, Indiana]], for the collection of a [[Civil rights movement|civil rights]] museum he planned to build there. In 2016, Hatcher returned the skull to two of Turner's descendants. Since receiving the skull, the family has temporarily placed it with the [[Smithsonian Institution]], where [[DNA testing]] will be done to determine whether it is the authentic remains of Nat Turner. If the test renders positive results, the family plans to bury his remains next to his descendants.<ref>{{cite web |last=Fornal |first=Justin |date=October 7, 2016 |title=Inside the Quest to Return Nat Turner's Skull to His Family |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/nat-turner-skull-slave-rebellion-uprising/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220051028/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/nat-turner-skull-slave-rebellion-uprising/ |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |access-date=December 4, 2016 |work=[[National Geographic (magazine)|National Geographic]]}}</ref>

Another skull said to have been Turner's was contributed to the [[College of Wooster]] in Ohio upon its incorporation in 1866. When the school's only academic building burned down in 1901, the skull was saved by Dr. H. N. Mateer. Visitors recalled seeing a certificate, signed by a physician in Southampton County in 1866, that attested to the authenticity of the skull. The skull was eventually misplaced.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ortiz |first=Andrew |date=December 21, 2015 |title=Skullduggery |url=http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/longform/skullduggery-nat-turner-skull/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930021321/http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/longform/skullduggery-nat-turner-skull/ |archive-date=September 30, 2017 |access-date=March 20, 2017 |work=[[Indianapolis Monthly]] |orig-year=October 2003}}</ref>