Before his execution, he told his story to attorney Thomas Ruffin Grey, who published The Confessions of Nat Turner in November 1831.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Nat Turner on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

An 1831 reward notice described Turner as:5 feet 6 or 8 inches [168–173 cm] high, weighs between 150 and 160 pounds [68–73 kg], rather "bright" [light-colored] complexion, but not a mulatto, broad shoulders, larger flat nose, large eyes, broad flat feet, rather knockneed [sic], walks brisk and active, hair on the top of the head very thin, no beard, except on the upper lip and the top of the chin, a scar on one of his temples, also one on the back of his neck, a large knot on one of the bones of his right arm, near the wrist, produced by a blow.

The historian Patrick Breen stated, "Nat Turner thought that God used the natural world as a backdrop in front of which he placed signs and omens.

[12][1] In 1824, Turner had a second vision while working in the fields for Thomas Moore: "The Saviour was about to lay down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and the great day of judgment was at hand".

[9] Historian and theologian Joseph Dreis says, "In connecting this vision to the motivation for his rebellion, Turner makes it clear that he sees himself as participating in the confrontation between God's Kingdom and the anti-Kingdom that characterized his social-historical context.

"[15] During the 1820s, Turner was motivated by strong convictions, at least partly inspired by his religious beliefs, to organize his fellow slaves against enslavement.

[11] Over approximately a decade, Turner built up support for his cause, culminating in an anti-slavery uprising that served as a source of inspiration for later abolitionist organizers and rebels.

[16] On October 30, a farmer named Benjamin Phipps discovered Turner hiding in a depression in the earth, created by a large, fallen tree covered with fence rails.

Before his execution, he told his story to attorney Thomas R. Grey, who published The Confessions of Nat Turner in November 1831.

[34] In 2002, a skull said to have been Turner's was given to Richard G. Hatcher, the former mayor of Gary, Indiana, for the collection of a civil rights museum he planned to build there.

Since receiving the skull, the family has temporarily placed it with the Smithsonian Institution, where DNA testing will be done to determine whether it is the authentic remains of Nat Turner.

Visitors recalled seeing a certificate, signed by a physician in Southampton County in 1866, that attested to the authenticity of the skull.

[42] On September 26, 1831, the Richmond Constitutional Whig published a story about the raiding of Reese plantation stating that, "some papers [were] given up by his wife, under the lash.