Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher, led a small group that moved through Southampton County in August 1831, killing members of slaveholding households and gathering recruits. Militia suppressed the revolt within days, although Turner remained at large until October.

White authorities executed Turner and many others, while extrajudicial violence killed additional Black people who had no proven role. Southern legislatures imposed harsher restrictions on Black education, assembly and preaching.

The Letter Writer approaches the crisis through a fictional child whose literacy and correspondence have unintended consequences. The book links the power of written information to the extreme surveillance and violence of slave society.