Nat Turner (1800 - 1831) was an enslaved African American who led a rebellion of slaves and free blacks in Southampton County, Virginia on August 21, 1831. His story is the basis for the controversial new film The Birth of a Nation from Fox Searchlight Pictures. The Confessions of Nat Turner is the key primary document supporting historical events. It is a first-hand account of Turner's confessions published by a local lawyer, Thomas Ruffin Gray, in 1831.