In August 1831, Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher and visionary leader, led the deadliest slave rebellion in American history in Southampton County, Virginia. Over the course of two days, Turner and a group of about 70 followers killed between 55 and 60 white people, including women and children, as they moved from plantation to plantation. The rebellion was swiftly suppressed by state and federal troops, and Turner was captured and hanged. The uprising sent shockwaves through the South, leading to the passage of more restrictive slave codes and a wave of retaliatory violence against Black people, while also galvanizing abolitionist sentiment in the North.

Nat Turner's rebellion has inspired a vast literary legacy, including William Styron's controversial novel 'The Confessions of Nat Turner' and countless poems, plays, and songs. Turner's own 'Confessions,' dictated to his lawyer, is a foundational text in the American slave narrative tradition. The event has been explored by poets such as Robert Hayden and Etheridge Knight, who wrestle with Turner's complex legacy as both a revolutionary and a tragic figure.