Nat Turner, an enslaved, self-taught preacher born in Southampton County in October 1800, was intelligent, literate, and deeply religious, and he believed signs from Heaven guided him to begin a slave revolt in 1831 in which more White people were killed than in any other in American history. He said he began receiving visions from God in the 1820s that led him to plan an uprising against slaveholders. After witnessing a solar eclipse on February 12, 1831, and an atmospheric disturbance on August 13 that made the sun appear bluish green, he took these as signs to begin the rebellion. On the afternoon of August 21, he met his closest followers at Cabin Pond, and they traveled from house to house, offering enslaved people the chance to join them and promising freedom, while killing all enslavers they encountered. By noon on August 22, Turner's force had grown to more than 60 armed men. After killing the Rebecca Vaughan family, Turner's troops were challenged by the Southampton Militia at nearby Parker's Field and found their path to Jerusalem, today's Courtland, heavily guarded by militia at Cypress Bridge over the Nottaway River. The insurrectionists spent that evening at Major Ridley's Quarter. The next morning, the Blunt family and their bondsmen at Belmont defeated Turner's followers, and later that day militia scattered most of his remaining supporters. Companies from Virginia and North Carolina violently suppressed the uprising. Turner escaped that skirmish and avoided capture until October 30, 1831. Local officials ordered his execution, and he was hanged on November 11, 1831.