The Fires of Jubilee : Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion Essay

The Fires of Jubilee, by Stephen B. Oates, tells an account of Nat Turner’s rebellion. Beginning with Nat’s early life and finally ending with the legacy his execution left the world, Oates paints a historical rending of those fateful days. The Confessions of Nat Turner by Thomas R. Gray and approved by Nat himself is among Oates’ chief sources. Oates is known as a reputable historian through his other works, and has strong credentials however, in the case of The Fires of Jubilee there are some limitations. It is, therefore, worth analyzing Oates’ interpretation for reliability. In doing so one sees that The Fires of Jubilee, because of its weak use of citations, failure to alert the audience of assumed details and the way in which

Mental deprivation for Frederick Douglass was a far worse experience than the physical imprisonment of slavery for reasons of personal thought and independent knowledge being stripped away from him. He always knew slavery was wrong in the back of his mind, yet he had no idea of what to do about the situation, but when he was finally told how to read by one of his slave master’s wife, that power he was beginning to obtain was immediately stripped away from him and he felt mentally crushed. Lastly, there came a time when through him educating fellow slaves by teaching them how to read the Bible, the group of slaves plotted to escape. When the plan failed, Douglass was separated from his loved ones.

First of all, both Frederick Douglass and Nat Turner has a lot of similarities. Both were well-educated slaves, and education helped them to be different from other slaves. In fact, while learning to read and write, Douglass understood his real life of being a slave because he could develop his imagination and interpret what was happening around him. For example, at the end of the chapter two of his book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself”, Douglass mentioned the slave song that he sang with other slaves when they were going to the Great House Farm which is the Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. When Douglass was a slave, he could not understand the real meaning of the song; however, when he grew up

The book “The Fires of Jubilee” describes the lifestyle that America had in the 1800s. It shows what kind of life the African people and also Black people that were born in America, how the Americans made rules and laws to get more control on their slaves, and how they used the influence of the church to make the African think that they were born just for services the white people. After that, Stephen Oates wrote the story of how an African American believed that he was a messenger of God, that born to be the leader of the slaves.

Gray’s “The Confessions of Nat Turner” opened with an overview of Turner’s early life. He included a passage in which Turner said that an odd moment in his life, when he recalled events that happened before his birth, “laid the ground work of that enthusiasm, which has terminated so fatally to many” (44). By declaring his revolt as an enthusiasm, which means that it was a divinely inspired pursuit, he already ingrained the prejudice of the confessions being the one of an overly religious man. The confessions persisted with the idea of Turner being an irrational self-proclaimed prophet. He was said to have many revelations in his life which convinced him that he was “ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty” (46). The purpose, as he saw it, was to lead his people to freedom.

In The Fires of Jubilee Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion: Stephen Oates gives an account of the brief but deadly slave revolt in and around Southampton, Virginia. His controlling theme is that of religion and the profound influence that it had on the development of Nat Turner's charismatic persona and his rationale for engaging in a project of deliberate murder of people who had at least in the context of slavery as a given of Turner's experience, treated him quite decently. The effects of Nat Turner's rebellion were profound. The insurrection of Nat Turner was inspiration for all slaves, even if just 60 whites were killed to the 140 blacks. I am

This paper analyses the cause and the outcome of the Nat Turner’s rebellion. It also shows how violence was justified in the movement to abolish slavery because it proved that slave-owners should take the interest of slaves very seriously and treat them as a human, it also became a turning point where some slaves had the power to fight for a cause that they truly believed in and to a certain degree they were successful.

During their 'March of Destruction,'; things began to get out of hand. Though he was willing to go to extreme measures to gain his freedom, the events that ended up taking place ended up becoming a massacre. Due to Nat's rebellion, 60 whites and 200 blacks died. Though Nat did in fact partake in the killings, the author makes it out to seem as if in the end, Nat did not really want this to become a bloodbath. Although he thought that it was getting out of hand, he stood idly by, watching the massacre take place. In the end, a total of 50 stood trial, and 21, including Nat Turner were hung for the rebellion.

In 1825 he had a vision of a bloody conflict between black and white spirit. Three years later he had another vision he believed was from God. In one of his confession he explained "the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent. " He waited on another sign of when to strike, God telling him "I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with their own weapons."( Biography.com). With all these signs and visions that he received, led him to orchestrate the bloodiest slave revolt in history.

Reading the bible is where Nat received many of his callings to start his massive slave

The book educates readers on the difficult life slaves had in America during the 1800’s and the life of Nat Turner and the rebellion he lead. The book focuses on Nat’s life and the adversities as well as challenges slaves had to go through to survive. The psychological effects slaves had for the fault of the system they were unjustly born into or put in, affected their decision making every day; either by making them obey their masters or fight for their freedom and die, rather than continue living as a slave. In the case of Nat Turner, life as a slave caused him to lead a rebellion whose sole purpose was to kill all of the white people who lived in Southampton County, Virginia, and its surrounding areas. Unfortunately, Nat’s rebellion is what caused his death.

The message about a rebellion spread to the slaves in Southampton and small revolts followed. On August 1831 Nat led a group of armed slaves in the middle of the night and went round the homes of the whites killing them and living the bodies behind. They did this for two days but Nat killed nobody because of his Christian belief, but he thought that he was sent by God to free the slaves from bondage (Oates, 2009). The slaves had been mistreated for many years so they killed even women and children.

Nat Turner was an African American slave who was born in Southampton County, Virginia on October 2, 1800. He started working on southern plantations 1831. When he was younger, everyone thought of him as being very smart. They saw that he was smart when he was about 3 or 4 years old. While young Nat Turner was playing with some of his friends, his mother heard him tell the children about something that had happened to him when he was born. She later had asked him about what he told the children. She asked him details about the incident, and it confirmed that he knew about this past event. From that time on, other slaves believed that in addition to his unique view, his physical markings were a sign that he would be a prophet.

In 1821, Nat had decided to run away from his master and to live as a fugitive. While on the run, he met his future wife, Cherry, who was also a slave that was working on the Turner's farm. As time went by, after 30 days has passed Nat had returned to the plantation on his own freewill. Because of his return "Nat said, "the reason of my return was, that the Spirit appeared to me and said I had wishes directed to the things of this world, and not to the Kingdom of Heaven, and that I should return to the service of my earthly master" " (Goldman 60). With his return, Nat went unpunished and was returned to his daily work.

in the book and read the book("Fires of Jubilee").The slave masters were astonished because none