Born in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1800, Nat Turner was a deeply religious man, known to his fellow slaves as a seer, prophet, and preacher. In the 1820s he began to see visions of a struggle between black and white angels as the heavens ran red with blood. In 1828 he had a vision that "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." Convinced that he had been chosen by God to lead the slaves out of bondage, Turner waited until the omen of an eclipse signaled that the time was right. In the early morning hours of 22 August 1831 he and five others began the bloodiest slave revolt in the history of the United States. Over the course of two days more than seventy slaves joined the revolt...