Episode 13 | Black Women of the Southhampton Slave Revolt with Vanessa M. Holden

Nat Turner, a preacher and slave in Southhampton County, VA, organized a small group of loyal followers and mounted a terrific and terrorizing rebellion against the plantation system, killing around 60 white people as they plowed their way to a nearby armory.

The insurrection was quelled by the state militia, eventually leading to Turner’s trial and execution. But his capture was prolonged for six long weeks. How was the slave leader sustained during that time? And where are the enslaved women of Southhampton County in the narrative of this historical event? Dr. Vanessa M. Holden joins Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal to discuss her latest book, Surviving Southampton: African American Women and Resistance in Nat Turner’s Community, published by University of Illinois Press. Dr. Holden is an Associate Professor of History and African American & Africana Studies and the Director of the Central Kentucky Slavery Initiative at the University of Kentucky.