On Oct. 2, 1800, one of the most highly regarded leaders of his time, Nat Turner, was born enslaved on a plantation in Southhampton County, Va. A deeply spiritual man, he engulfed himself in study, prayer and fasting on a regular basis. His mother and grandmother were brought from Africa to America and maintained a deep-seated hatred toward slavery.
Turner was an intelligent man and in his youth he developed the same view of slavery. At an early age, his family believed he was chosen by God to lead his people out of that peculiarly brutal institution.