White Southerners responded brutally to the rebellion. They executed 55 enslaved people for participating in or supporting the revolt, including Turner, and other angry white people killed over 200 African-Americans in the days after the rebellion.
Nat Turner destroyed the white Southern myth that slaves were actually happy with their lives or too docile to undertake a violent rebellion. His revolt hardened proslavery attitudes among Southern whites and led to new oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and assembly of slaves.
