Essay on The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates

In August 21 of 1831, a solar eclipse convinced him to begin with a first movement where they killed white people around such as men, women, children using axes and tools. At the time, they were moving from farm to farm, picking up more volunteers from among slaves to give their services in favor to the revolution, making the force grow in numbers, but some of the black slaves were terrified by how they were killing the white population. That provoked to some slaves run away from the battle to warn the other whites about the movement of Turner. Because of that situation, the white people made a decision of evacuated after the Turner’s rebellion had attacked a half dozen of farms. When Turner realized that the White population was gone, he made the decision to divide his forces to improve

Intentionally his mother had planned to kill Nat, she did not want to see her son growing up a slave no child deserves that life nobody does. Now, Nat wasn't your typical child at a young age he would speak of events that happened before he was even born his parents knew he was special everybody did. Once he was given a book from one of the other slaves and I do dear remind you reading and learning was a privilege not given to slaves but Nat knew how to read yet nobody had taught him. Even his master Benjamin Turner came to realization that Nat was special even saying to his friends that “he would never be of service to anyone as a slave”. Now years went by and Nat life started to change dramatically, for one his father had escaped to the north not to be heard of again a year went by when Nat’s master had past away and left the plantation to his eldest son Samuel turner. Samuel made the slaves work very hard and was a very religious individual even telling the slaves it's God’s work so they become more obedient. Americans would use christianity as justification, because at the time slaveholders were uneasy about the whole slave

The consequences of the rebellion were very well known in the state and county. Immediate consequences were obviously the lost lives of the fifty-something whites. Many other slaves lost their lives as the militia began to fight and shut down Nat’s group. The entire county and state was on alert for any suspicious activity coming from any slaves. There was no way to tell if this was just the beginning or the ending. Rumors spread quickly throughout the state that Nat’s rebellion was only the beginning and that many other slaves outside of his county were planning to revolt as well. These rumors proved to not be true, but because the residents of the state were on high alert, many innocent, free blacks and slaves were killed simply for being suspicious. There were trials and hangings publicly in Virginia and North Carolina. The lives lost due to this rebellion went far beyond the men and women killed on the first two days by Nat and his crew.

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

Oates begins the book with a thorough biography of Turner. He makes a real effort to show what could lead a man to commit the actions he did. Nat was born on October 17, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. His mother, Nancy, was brought to America in 1795. The man who purchased her was Benjamin Turner, a wealthy tidewater planter. Nancy married a slave whose name is not known, and gave birth to Nat. Interestingly, she tried to kill Nat rather than see him grow up to be a slave. I find this to be an incredible and very powerful piece of information. If that doesn’t illustrate how emotionally and physically devastating it was to be enslaved, then I don’t know what could. By the time he was four or five years old, people started to realize that there was something very special about Nat. He could recall things that had happened before he was born. Nat 's parents were very proud of him and discovered strange marking on his head and back. African legend held that a male with such markings would grow up to be a leader. His intelligence earned him the respect and admiration of other slaves as well. One time he was given a book by another slave, and was able to decipher

Nat Turner is the most famous and most controversial slave rebel on American history. He was living in the innocent season of his life, in those carefree years before the working age of twelve when a slave boy could romp and run about the plantation with uninhibited glee. Nat in his young years cavorted about the home place as slave children did generally in Virginia. He was first lived in Turner's house, who owned a modest plantationin a remote neighborhood "down county" from Jerusalem. His daytime supervisor was his grandmother, Old Bridget- who regaled the boy with slave tales and stories from the Bible. Nat had become very attached to his grandmother. The Turners had become Methodists, who held prayer services on their farm and took

William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1805 and was raised in poverty. As a child Garrison faced many challenges, including lack of father and starvation, but Garrison overcome those obstacles and he even taught himself how to read. When Garrison was 25, he joined the abolitionist movement. He also became associated with the (ACS) American Colonization Society, but most members of the ACS didn’t want to free slaves. Therefore, by 1830, Garrison rejected the American Colonization Society since most of them opposed freeing slaves. On January 01, 1831, Garrison published the first issue of his own antislavery newspaper The Liberator. Garrison’s main idea for the liberator was educating people about slavery and its emancipation.

Nat Turner was a slave from Virginia who considered himself to be a prophet. Believing that he was chosen by God, he led a small group of 60 slave (he met through the church) in 1831 to carry out a violent rebellion that lasted for 24 hours. They were responsible for the killing of white families to include men, women and children. His actions spread fear across the south until his hanging approximately two months after the revolt. While there were sympathy for the white families that were killed during the rebellion, No one sympathize with the approximately 200 African Americans that were beaten or killed, most of which were innocent.

Through The Liberator, Garrison was able to express his unique and personalized views on slavery. The articles he published had a common theme of immediate emancipation and slavery as a moral dilemma, contrasting the common idea of gradual emancipation among other abolitionists. The newspaper started out slowly, coinciding with the apprehension towards Garrison’s radical views. Of his 2,000 subscribers by 1834, three-fourths were black. At several points, there were riots against the newspaper, and even a reward offered in Southern states for the capture of Garrison. However, by 1861, as abolitionist ideas grew, he gained a large following from blacks and Northern states. Furthermore, after the end of the Civil War, The Liberator was universally praised and recognized throughout the North and among slaves.

The author of this book is a professor of history at Columbia University and is one of the country’s most noticeable historians. He graduated from Columbia with his doctoral degree under Richard Hofstadter. Foner is one of only two people to be president of three major professional organizations. They are the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Historians.

The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates describes a sad and tragic story about a man named Nat Turner who was born into slavery and his fight to be free. Ironically, his willingness to do anything, even kill, to gain his freedom leads to his own demise. From the title of this book, 'The Fires of Jubilee, '; a reader can truly grasp the concept that there is trouble, chaos, and mayhem brewing in the month of August.

Nat Turner’s rebellion has been considered one of the bloodiest slave revolt in Southern history, and had a huge impact on the futures of Southern generations for years after. In Nat Turner’s confessions he states “You have asked me to give a history of the motives which induced me to undertake the late insurrection, as you call it--To do so I must go back to the days of my infancy, and even before I was born. I was thirty-one years of age the 2d of October last, and born the property of Benjamin Turner, of this county.” (Turner 1831 pg.3) Nat Turner lived in South Hampton County, now in Virginia. In South Hampton County, there were many slaves. Slaves would attend praise meetings and celebrate the praise, in such a way the whites did not understand, but the whites still believed that they were harmless. Again, the whites believed that their slaves posed no threat however, nothing was as calm as it appeared. On August 22, 1831, a gang of slave rebels led by a preist, Nat Turner, attacked with guns and axes in the biggest and bloodiest slave revolt in Southern history.

What was the importance of Nat Turner and where does he stand in American history? Nat Turner is an American slave, who has been forgotten about in history as well in the hearts of African-Americans. He led and organized one of the bloodiest slave rebellions in American history. This rebellion was "…the rebellion that served to change the course of American history in the three decades before the Civil War" (Goldman 10). Within this paper, it is to analyze on his impact on the nation.

Nat Turner is an black man that was born in Southampton County, Virginia, On October 2, 1800. He led a slave rebellion that was one, if not the biggest slave rebellions in history. It also took an important role in the African American slave society. Nat Turner was born into slavery so he never knew any kind of happiness his whole life leading up to this rebellion. He was forced to work unbelievable hours for his masters with no sympathy in return.It was a horrible system of slavery that Nat Turner eagerly wished to overthrow. The slaves were treated like animals. Forced to work in whatever climate and day that their masters saw fit. This means that they can use whatever punishment that they saw fit. Some fellow slaves saw Turner as a spiritual leader. Many people believed that he was chosen by God to do great things for the slaves. When he was young, he claims that he saw visions sent by god to overthrow the white evil and tyranny. Turner felt God talking to him many times through his career as a slave. He had also been seeing signs that he felt were from above. For example, he had seen this solar eclipse. He felt that this was a sign from God to begin preparations to overthrow their masters and begin their revolution. He and other slaves began their preps to get it done and alerted other slaves what they were planning on doing. Other slaves were terrified by the idea because they felt if they were caught helping Turner then they would be persecuted for helping him and

The movie started with a scene of Nat Turner’s father shooting a slave catcher because they were about to kill him for lying about the food he was stealing for his son. He ended up dying early on in the movie. With no father figure, Nat learned how to read and Elizabeth Turner, wife of the slave master, took him under her wing and taught him how to read the bible. Soon, he became a Preacher for his fellow slaves and gave them hope. Shortly after, abolition ideas started to spread and slaves from different plantations began to resist against their slave masters; Nat’s Slave master, Sam Turner, made deals with other slave masters for Nat to preach to their slaves. In the light of the condition and brutal unfair treatment he saw of his people, he started a small group to form a resistance against their master. Eventually leading to the Nat Turner Rebellion, where they killed their slave owners.