Nat Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an African-American enslaved preacher who led the four-day rebellion of enslaved and free black people in Southampton County, Virginia in 1831. Born into slavery on October 2, 1800, in Southampton County, Virginia, a plantation area with more blacks than whites, Turner was recorded as "Nat" by Benjamin Turner, the man who enslaved him and his family. When Benjamin Turner died in 1810, under then current laws which made human enslavement legal, Nat was inherited as property by Benjamin's son Samuel Turner. For most of his life, he was known as "Nat", but after the 1831 rebellion, he was widely referred to as "Nat Turner". Turner knew little about the background of his father, who was believed to have escaped from slavery when Turner was a young boy. Turner spent his entire life in Southampton County.