The Confessions of Nat Turner demonstrates the significant role religion played in Nat Turner’s Rebellion. Within Turner’s deposition, Turner acknowledges his role in the August 1831, Southampton, Virginia slave insurrection, and he describes his religious upbringings and lifelong enthusiasm for religion. Essentially, religion provided Turner an avenue to education, but Turner’s religious beliefs serve as his defense, as well as a means to justify his actions. From an early age, Turner was viewed as possessing an uncommon intellect. Turner learned how to read and write, and as he grew older, so did his quest for knowledge outside the realm of religion. However, during Turner’s childhood, he was also viewed as possessing a prophetic like ability, and over time, Turner’s religious passions grew, and he became fanatically devoted to religious self-instruction. After a series of godly spiritual visions, Turner viewed himself as divinely ordained to lead his fellow slaves out of bondage, and upon receiving god’s final revelation, Nat Turner began the slave insurrection. For Turner, the rebellion was justified, because he was doing god’s work, however, the white population viewed the rebellion as a product of Turner’s religious fanaticism. In the southern United States, religious principles and superior white intelligence were two major justifications for the enslavement of black people. Nat Turner’s ability to plan and execute one of the bloodiest slave rebellions in American history shattered those theories. Turner’s use of religion and intellect changed the white misconception that slaves were too ignorant to understand or want freedom. Ironically, one of the main lessons whites learned from Nat Turner’s rebellion was not the injustices of slavery, but the frightening possibilities of educated blacks. Even though the rebellion did not bring about Turner’s