Analysis Of The Fires Of Jubilee

Published in 1975 by Harper Perennial, The Fires of Jubilee by Stephan Oates explores the personality of Nat Turner and the events which lead up to his leadership of the Virginian slave revolt of 1831 (Oates 4, 126). Young Nat was born into slavery in 1800, but, due to his precocity, he was early lead to believe in the probability, nee inevitability, of his eventual freedom (11-16). However, things were not to be so simple for him. Disease, death, and the vicissitudes of fortune all converged to cause Nat to remain a slave in the hands of several different owners. Of a highly introspective, superstitious nature, Nat chaffed at and brooded extensively on his circumstances – longing for freedom (24-32). Seeking an outlet for his intelligence

Like a gathering wave, he and his followers fell on the houses of the unsuspecting whites and slaughtered them without respect to age. Growing in numbers as the group went, the wave gained ferocity and momentum until it claimed around sixty white lives. However, every wave eventually brakes upon the beach, and it was the same for this one. Lack of communication, discipline, and experience all contributed to the collapse of the revolt, and, in the aftermath of white hysteria and reaction, the deaths of more than two hundred blacks – many of whom were innocent. Nat was himself captured and executed after escaping detection for many weeks (Oates).
Written in a cogent and emotive style, The Fires of Jubilee sought to lend insight into the character of a complex and highly controversial figure. While at times excessively detailed, overall, the book was an excellent window into the intricate web of antebellum southern society. Although their motives may have been understandable, their actions cannot be entirely justified, and while inspiring hope in the enslaved population and initiating a vital conversation in state legislatures the rebellion produced few tangible benefits for the black community as a

It could be argued that the revolt was entirely reactionary and in response to the myriad of abuses propagated by the white, slave-holding society (Garrison). Slaves were treated as little more than chattel – subject to the caprice and whims of their owners. In one infamous case, a slave woman was executed for killing her master when he attempted to rape her. As a slave, the court literally did not recognize her as a woman but only as an item to be used and abused (Foner 410). Such callous treatment is difficult to fathom, and perhaps helps to put the slave’s rebellion into context; however, Turner’s actions were highly reprehensible in that his slaughter was not confined to those who had perpetrated these abuses, but was instead an indiscriminate massacre of the innocent and the guilty