Fierce Rebellion by Stephen B. Oates The book Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion (New York, Ny: Harper Perennial, 1990) by Stephen B. Oates portrays a slave rebellion and uprising in the 1830’s. Oates has written many books on American history and his style of writing makes his books readable and popular. He has become a unique storyteller of his time, in his book he tells of a transformation that changed the city of South Hampton, Virginia forever, an unspeakable action heard throughout the whole nation and insurrection. What is an insurrection? It is a rebellion, revolution, mutiny and uprising, a concept that has never lost hope in African-American slaves. Born in Pampa, Texas, Stephen B. Oates has been known for his distinguished books of American history and has received many honorable awards. Despite his early years in pursuing a business career, he ended up specializing in American history. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) in 1958. Having received his Masters in 1960 and nine years later, his PhD in education, Oates has been a lecturer and guest speaker at many colleges and has appeared on television and radio. One of his notable awards includes the Master Teacher Award from the University of Hartford in 1985. He was a semi finalist in the National Professor of the Year competition winning the silver medal that same year. He has nearly 35 years of teaching experience and is currently a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He also holds membership in the Society of American Historians, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Texas Institute of Letters. In his books, Oates has been recognized for writing controversia... ... middle of paper ... ...tality and the aftermath of the white’s slaughtering the innocent black slaves. In the beginning, and again near the end of the novel, some aspects of what the author was trying to interpret were a bit confusing. Oates enlightens the reader on governor Floyd’s position in not liberating the slaves, but at the end Floyd changes his position and contemplates freeing the slaves to stop any future rebellions. This aspect of the book was to some extent hard to capture because of the way Oates interpreted Floyd as a strong governor in the beginning. The ideals and theology of Stephen B. Oates book Fire of Jubilee captures a sensitive era. Even today, many Blacks in South Hampton County consider Nat’s insurrection as a legend of possibly one of the first slave rebellions that took place. I would recommend this book to any student who is interested in American History.
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 handles the chief source Confessions, quickly begins to shift from a decently steadfast description to an untrustworthy and unreliable account.
This is a report on the book Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion, written by Stephen B. Oates. The story is about a slave revolt that happened in 1831 and the person who led it, Nat Turner. It tells of his life, the area and time in which he lived, and of the bloody revolt as well as the bloodier repercussions after it was suppressed.
The Fires of Jubilee, is a well written recollection of the slave insurrection led by Nathaniel Turner. It portrays the events leading towards the civil war and the shattered myth of contented slaves in the South. The book is divided into four parts: This Infernal Spirit of Slavery, Go Sound the Jubilee, Judgment Day, and Legacy.
On September 9, 1739, as many as one hundred African and African American slaves were living within twenty miles of Charleston, South Carolina. This rebellious group of slaves joined forces to strike down white plantation and business owners in an attempt to march in numbers towards St. Augustine, Florida where the Spanish could hopefully grant their freedom. During the violent march toward Florida, the Stono Rebellion took the lives of more than sixty whites and thirty slaves. Ranking as South Carolina’s largest slave revolt in colonial America, Peter Charles Hoffer, a historian at the University of Georgia and author of Cry Liberty: The Great Stono River Slave Rebellion of 1739 tries to reinterpret the Stono Rebellion and challenges the reader to visualize what really went on to be a bloody uprising story in American History.
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.
Unfortunantly for the new leaders of the nation, they were left with many issues that challenged American ideals, including slavery. 1831 was a very pivotal year for the beginning of the abolishment of slavery. Soon after the eclipse, fear spread throughout Virginia of a possible slave rebellion. Eventhough some slave owners treated their slaves well, it did not mean they were safe from attack. On August 22, Nat Turner killed his master along with his family, the first account of slave rebellion in history. Turner’s Rebellion instilled fear in southern slave owners that a planned attack could occur at any moment (19). Thomas R. Gray, a slave owner and lawyer interviewed the slaves behind bars. He spoke with Turner for three day...
I’ve decided to review The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates for my book analysis. I was very hesitant on doing my analysis over this piece because I have so many opinions, and different viewpoints on this book. With so many opinions however, this was the best book for me to write 4 pages over. It was extremely easy for me to read Fires of Jubilee and really get into the text, because growing up my Mom would always tell stories about slaves and old slaves tales passed down from earlier generations of mine. Being of split-heritage I always get 2 different viewpoints and stories told to me and my brother by our great-grandparents, so reading this explained way more of the story of Nat Turner than I was previously told of when I was younger.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave is a book that is well worth reading. The personal experiences shared by Douglass really help one see how life for a slave was during this time period. Even though the book may be hard to relate to solely because of the time period difference, it is not hard to see the struggle that was existent during Douglass’s lifetime. This book is very educational and easy to understand which is why I would recommend it to anyone searching for a book to write a 10th grade history paper
3. The author, Mark Groen, is a professor at the California State University, San Bernardino. He has a Ph.D. in Education along with an MA in History from U.C. Riverside. I do believe that he is a credible source on the topic being discussed.
The degradation and cruelty slaves endured led to the death of their culture and identity, as well as multiple uprisings during the nineteenth century. Violence was used against slaves to express society’s ideology that the master was dominant. As a means to ensure that slaves would not retaliate against such treatment, they were denied the opportunity to learn, read or write. However, their yearning for freedom increased as their identity continued to be lost throughout time due to their assimilation to American culture to prevent punishment. As a result of the brutality against slaves, slave rebellions such as Nat Turner’s revolt, Gabriel’s conspiracy, and the German coast uprising, arose as a way to express a slave’s hope for freedom. Yet,
Frances Fitzgerald, in her essay “Rewriting American History” (1979), asserts that history textbooks are changing too quickly. She supports her assertion by including informative anecdotal evidence, reflective diction, and witty irony. Fitzgerald’s purpose is to encourage people in control of history textbooks to be more objective in order to provide students with a more consistent knowledge of history. She adopts a sarcastic tone (“Poor Columbus”) for her audience of textbook publishers, textbook writers, teachers, and school board members. Appendix: Type of Evidence: Anecdotal Example(s): “. begins with the story of how Henry B. Gonzalez, a member of Congress from Texas, learned about his own nationality” (para. 1).
The fundamental element of a successful slave rebellion is a heroic slave rebel. Madison Washington of Frederick Douglass' The Heroic Slave and Henry Blake of Martin Delany's Blake or the Huts of America serve as models of that rebel. First, he must possess a will to stay and fight-he must not be content to just run away and gain individual freedom, abandoning his family and friends. Second, he needs intelligence, and preferably education as well, to be able to organize large, complex plans of rebellion. Finally, he must be a natural leader, drawing fellow slaves and free abolitionists to follow him and fight for his cause. Throughout the novels, examples of all of these characteristics can be found in both heroic slave rebels.
I decided to do my final paper in the form of an extended review. With that, I chose the book, “Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance: The Power of Story” by Eric Selbin.. We started focusing on this book later on in this semester, but the book was interesting so I decided to choose it. Being that Sociology is my minor, I was all for learning about new methods of sociology and movements. This book sort of sticks out from the very diverse studies of revolution that have been published before this one came out. The author takes a different approach of explaining revolutions by incorporating the use of stories. The author uses these stories and analyzes them to come up with answers based around revolutions. Some of the questions he take a shot at explaining are things like why revolutions happen in one place and not the other, why do they happen at one time period and not another time period and why certain people affected. Selbin explains and touches on the three main words; revolution, resistance, and rebellion. Though the three words are categories themselves, he also have them divided into four other categories. Other important aspects and keywords that he focus on are mimesis, memory, and myth. These are used to show the connection with revolutions as times went on and on. The words revolution, resistance comes form Greco-Roman revolutionary leaders and ancient myths. They also are from the memory of legendary local events and revolutions and movements that involves certain parts of the society. Selbin Uses stories, and focuses on society and culture to bring out a different view on the connection between revolutions and individuality. He uses more of an agency approach. We should know refers to individual doing this out of their ...
"Characteristics of the Slave Narrative." Washington State University - Pullman, Washington. Web. 28 Sept. 2011. http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/narrativelist.htm
This demonstrates how the slaves suffered from the legal system because it didn’t hold all conspirators responsible, instead most of the blame fell into the slaves. Slaves were in the eyes of the legal system less human than whites and as a result they are discriminated against, despite only being co conspirators the slaves were prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Of course since this legal system was created by the white population it becomes clear that there is no way a slave would be treated fairly in this legal, another thing that becomes clear is the kind of culture that was accepted during that time the legal system reflects what kind of society and values were important in the colony and in the year of