Stephen B. Oates, the author of The Fires of Jubilee; Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion not only gives a drill of the egregious slave defection in Virginia of the Southampton County in August 1831 but also analyzes the backlashes of the Southern culture. This book is a historical narrative that details the history of the rebelled slaves, narrowed specifically to Nat Turner, who led the insurrection to eliminate the Southern white supremacy. Inclusion, Nat Turner is highly portrayed as a talented black slave who managed to marshal slaves into the bloody rebellion against their bosses. Oates vividly explains the acts that resulted to the total revolts as depicted by Nat Turner. Also, Oates’ book attempts to illustrate how the rebellious serfs were capable of increasing the tensions among the slaves and natives, which led to the whole civil war in thirty years later. Therefore, this paper will greatly focus on a detailed review of the book as well as provide a brief summary of the entire book.
Oates starts off the book with an illustrated biography of Nat Turner, in which he build up a real effort demonstrating the factors and circumstances that forced Turner to commit the revolt action against the white supremacy in the South. Turner is greatly described as a fascinating individual, who never accepted being complicit of the white Virginia’s humiliation and dehumanization; hence, he spent several years organizing an armed insurrection (Oates 3). In addition to the planning of the rebellion, Turner was also regarded as an unusual man with an astonishing capability of knowing how to read and write even though the act was prohibited to the servants, in which he managed to read the Bible.
Further, Turner’s abilities to read the Bible made him discover how the white individuals’ proof-texts of substantiating slavery were put on lesser roots, and the Bible was a book full of fascinating stories of the holy liberation of the exiles as well as the captives. However, the dramatic eclipse that took place in 1831 assured Turner that God wanted him to begin his revolt mission, which he started with his small followers executing the whites in the whole Southern county. Also, Oates gives out explanations on the systematic chronology of the short insurrection and its inhuman suppression.
Additionally, Oates continues by illustrating on the chain reaction of the series of events that occurred in 1831. For instance, the often forgotten act where the level at which the black casualties were killed in the white revenge, which highly outnumbered the victims of Turner. Further, Oates explains how the standard of fear developed in the entire white community in the South that made them worry about the rebellion and even considered it as a little section of the larger uprising plan of the Northern Abolitionists like the William Lloyd Garrison.
Therefore, the program led to the implementation of the harsher and stricter slave codes by the Virginians, which drastically reduced the regulated freedom and enjoyment that the slaves had before 1831 as well as acted as the residue of the whole antebellum period. Also, the Nat Turner’s revolt emerges the strongest among the several that existed and with the combination power they almost managed to persuade Governor Floyd of Virginia to pass the bill of liberation in the legislation state.
Inclusion, the planned uprising of the six confidantes of Nat Turner and himself did not achieve to flare off the whole slavery war, in which many servants remained owned by their masters. Similarly, the union kept on going until the three small bloody days where they managed to come nearer of overturning the existing history of slavery.
However, Oates summarizes this book by outlining supplement stories he gathered from his field research in Virginia to get the full credit of the Turner’s story. For example, he found out that the place was still fumed by the racial tension even after a very long time that Nat Turner accomplished the liberation of slaves from their cottages to conquer their oppressors.
Unfortunately, Oates concluded his narration with a sorrowful ending, in which Nat Turner and other twenty African American were hanged while the rest voluntarily submitted to the White Virginia authorities to avoid being murdered. Also, the sad ending of the book includes both the whites and the African American slaves shading blood, which verified that it is only their color, identity and race that were alike but the blood color revealed the total human similarity (Oates 195).
Book Review
Stephen B. Oates wrote the Fires of Jubilee; Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion, with the main purpose, to show the past events that took place during the Turner’s time depicting the entire world of slavery as well as real nature of the old Southern county of Virginia. Hence, Oates’ book made me a knowledgeable person on the historical background of slavery, how slaves were mistreated by their masters and I even learned the main reasons why the slave owners were extremely reluctant to let their slave free.
For example, I came to know that the ownership of slaves was not only a colossal symbolic status in the old Southern community but also the greatest tested and tried humans’ of the racial control in the whole whites’ supremacist society. Thus, I find this book being more educative on the general issues of slavery; it gives out the proper picture of what slavery entails.
Also, the book made me feel much sympathetic to the individual people taken as slaves, and I also learned not to hate or discriminate anyone in correspondence of the body color because each person was made by God from Turner’s biblical point of view. In addition to this I felt encouraged and even understood that in order to overcome any hard situation, unity is the key foundation for the achievement.
For instance, the slaves used to sing songs with two different meanings, vandalized, raided the plantations as well as kept distance from their masters; in which all these acts functioned as opposing ways of their life in the captive. Inclusively, the knowledge I got from the book about the church made me also to see my religion as a right place to free myself from any life temptation; as the slaves fully viewed their churches as a place of freedom (Oates 80).
Further, I deeply liked the entire book due to its firm educative themes; for example, it gives a detailed explanation of the history of how the slaves struggled and fought for their freedom as well as the freedom of their entire future generation. Also, it shows how the innocent people of African-American including Nat Turner and other individuals ended up shedding their blood in the process of fighting to be freed from slavery. Inclusion, the book also brings out the combination effort that Turner and his comrades used to lure people to rebel against their masters.
Therefore, Oates’ book educates people to have unity and never discriminate others as all human beings have the same privileges and rights regardless of their skin colors. Thus, I cannot see anything that Oates left out as his book offers a quick, readable historical narrative of the slaves’ rebellion to everyone despite the lack of high definitive sources that force him to use contemporary similar attributes on some characters with no further explanations or evidence.
Fortunately, I will highly recommend this book to any person that requires an in-depth understanding of the historical stories of slavery and its consequences. Oates’ book is more detailed on the slavery issue compared to other books; it contained well-researched information on the slaves’ rebellion with firmly rooted historical facts. Thus, the historical evidence involved in the Oates’ argument makes the book more interesting, and anyone would enjoy reading it.
The Oates’ book helped me to know how to describe many historical events that occurred fifty years earlier to the civil war. Also, I came to learn that the revolt was considered as one of the factors that facilitated the animosity between different races resulting in war. Moreover, I gained a knowhow on the oppression that the slaves passed through during their struggle to attain freedom.
Moreover, the book helped me to gain an understandable knowledge on the series of events that took place in the entire process of equalizing the human rights with no basis of skin color. For example, the great tactics that Nat Turner and other twenty African American people used in trying to entice other slaves to achieve their freedom and even they ended up being killed on the process. Therefore, I managed to learn that to be a good leader you must sacrifice everything including your own life.
Fortunately, the book gives us a proper historical background on the issue slavery, which is part of the study we encounter in this history course. For instance, the book discusses oppressions that the slaves faced in the South and even give some significant knowledge on the causes of civil war.
Also, Oates in his book provides illustrative information on the historical study of Turner. For example, his life experience as a slave that takes the researchers through the suffering and struggle he faced as well as the entire events that made him take the risky decision of leading the rebellion against the servant masters (Oates 15).
Finally, Slavery and revolutionary are some the themes that are well outlined in the book, in which the entire story is based on the Southern County, Virginia where the African American went through a terrible time in search for their rights and freedom as human beings as well as to bring equality in all nations. Therefore, this deepens our understandings on the changes that took place in most countries that practiced slavery as a way of boosting their economy. Thus, the revolutionary periods we learned are more correlated to the Oates’ story on how the South came to quite the issue of slavery.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Oates in his book, the Fires of Jubilee; Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion provides an illustrative study on the outrageous slave insurrection in Virginia of the Southampton County in August 1831 as well as analyzes the outcomes of the Southern culture. Oates brings out the history of slavery using an excellent research on Turner’s slave experience, in which his full story on slavery is grounded.
Inclusion, I found the book more educative compared to other historical books on slavery as it provides an illustrative explanation by its factual historical evidence. Also, the book attracts the total attention of the readers as it is more in a form of a story, in which Oates refrained from providing his opinions on the discussion subject of the narrative. Hence, this paper has clearly outlined the summary and review of the Oates’ book, the Fires of Jubilee.
Work Cited
Oates, Stephen B. The Fires of Jubilee; Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion. Print.
