Signs in the Heavens: Nat Turner’s Revolt
Walter Johnson, 22 October 2026
In the long history of mass racial killing in the United States, Nat Turner’s revolt stands out as the one instance in which the perpetrators were Black and the victims white. Beginning late on the night of 21 August 1831, the rebels went from house to house in Southampton County, Virginia, murdering all the white people they could. Their numbers grew as they were joined by enslaved...

