we grow up here knowing the story of nat turner. >> after all, nat turner's story begins in southamptonounty before it reverberates across the country and through the ages till today. >> till then, we remain steadfast, ready to strike at the moment of the lord's call. we'll destroy them all. >> he probably had a genius iq, but it was encased within a body that was supposed to be nothing. >> bruce turner is a great-great-great grandson of nat turner. he says nat, born in 1800, learns to read the bible and by his teens is preaching to his fellow slaves. >> he had a very loud, commanding, and fiery voice to where he could mesmerize them when he would stare at them with his eyes. ♪ >> it's around this time turner is baptized in a pond on the person family property. did he know your family? >> he knew the family. my great-great-grandfather, john person, owned the land. >> mark person is maurice's cousin. your family, they were slave owners. >> yeah. they did own slaves. but a lot of the neighbors didn't like john person 'cause he was too kind to the slaves sometimes. but he said, "hey, it's

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: one such recording from the archive comes from a band called the nat turner rebellionre's this music that is good and i've never heard of them.ow you joe jefferson was the bandleader who went on to write ofton of hit records in the 70s and we have a loaterial and there was never an album released. is what if what if we put together? we could actually make an album that nev actually existed. >> reporter: we might want to reach out to band members ife n find them. >> reporter: this is where professor marc offenbach's class comes in. for two year he and his students were dedicated to figuring out if they could release an album of nat tucoer rebellion ings on their student run mad dragon record label. >> you know, it's like following nsthe trail of who really t. you know, you open up these boxes, there's papers in there saying here the composers. here's the songwriter, here's the producer. he has the publishing company. but it's 5years old and things change hands. and even though we have the master tapes, this is all about getting mechanical rights from the publisher in or