Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Native american culture and spirituality
7th grade essay on Nat turner
Native american culture and spirituality
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Native american culture and spirituality
The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion
Stephen B. Oates is an acclaimed biographer famous for his biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. Oates was a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts- Amherst. Oats was also an expert of The United States history during the nineteenth-century era. In addition to his career as a professor Oates was an author to sixteen books that all followed the same theme as being biographies of American historical figures during the nineteenth century. The New York Times described Stephen B. Oates work in the enticing novel The Fires of Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion as “A penetrating reconstruction of the most disturbing and crucial slave uprising in
…show more content…
The author does an excellent job in describing the scenes for the reader. The level of detail that the author uses places the reader into the scene that he is describing. As the reader reads through the pages of this novel the reader feels as though they are present in Southampton County. The author states, “He was like a powerful angel whose wings were nailed to the flood” (Oates 41). It is as if the reader is with Nat Turner working under the hot sun and feeling the same amount of frustration he is. The author also does an amazing job by giving factual information. In addition to describing the emotions that Turner felt he also gave a vivid description of the events that were taking place during his time period. He gave an insight into what America was going through to lead to the rebellion. The author makes Nat Turner’s rebellion understandable and clear by illustrating the effects that it had on America. He writes how the rebellion hurts the slaves at first because there were harsher punishments, but he then goes on to discuss the legacy that was left. At the end of the book, Oates puts in a sections called “Reference Notes“ that lists all the research that Oates did to write the book. Oates does an excellent job in conveying to the reader the true historical facts that took place during the rebellion of …show more content…
The book was broken up into two major sections where the author explores every part of Nat Turner’s mindset at the time. He has a prologue which he uses to set up the setting of Nat Turner’s time period. In addition to the prologue, Oates has an epilogue which he uses to describe the effects of Nat’s Turners rebellion. These two major sections really help the reader to understand what Nat Turner’s purpose was. After the prologue, Oates has four sections which he dedicates to describing Turner’s mindset to lead up into the rebellion as well as the legacy that it left with the other slaves. In the first section called This Infernal Spirit of Slavery, Oates states “For Nat it was an especially painful time, for he had been led to believe he might be freed one day” (Oates 21). When Nat was put into the field as a normal field slave Turner has a period of pure confusion. Just a year ago he was playing with the white children and now he was treated as a piece of property and worked like a mule. As he started to get more religious Turner felt that he was put on this earth to end slavery. Oates points out that Turner believed that “God did not intend a man of his gifts, his intelligence, his powers, to waste his years hoeing weeds and slopping hogs” (Oates 32). Turner had visions which he interpreted as messages from God to do his work. His
Nat Turner is by far the main character in the book. Born into slavery, Nat is a bright child who would eventually teach himself to read, a punishable offense for slaves during the period. His favorite book to read was the Bible, eventually interpreting it in a way that convinced him that he was a modern-day Moses, responsible for liberating slaves and recruiting a small band of slaves and freemen to begin the revolt. Governor John Floyd, who seriously considered drafting a law that would gradually abolish slavery throughout the state of Virginia, until the slave rebellion which would play an influential role in changing the minds of supporters and a threat to divide the state in two was made (ironically, this would eventually happen regardless). Vice President John C. Calhoun, whose reacti...
The story takes place in Southampton County, Virginia where little Nat Turner is introduced. Nat led a normal childhood for the most part, supervised by his beloved grandmother. They were working as slaves on a plantation owned by Benjamin and Elizabeth Turner. The Turners became Methodists due to the emphasis on free will and salvation. The impact of religious institutions on slavery gave whites second opinions on slavery. Methodists, Quakers and anti-slavery Baptist made it their duty to see that their voices were heard.
The book takes you day by day through John Wilkes Booth escape after killing Abraham Lincoln. Throughout the book Booth seems to get away with a lot. Many people help him throughout his journey of escaping without knowing what he has done.
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.
The novel Makes Me Wanna Holler discuss the problems of the black Americans from an insider prospective. When I say black Americans, I mean from the cultural issues, fatherhood, family, and how blacks working class families are anything, but lazy. Nathan recalls his troubled childhood, rehabilitation while in prison, and his success with the Washington Post. The novel helped me understand the mindset of black males and why some choose to be affiliated with gangs. Additionally, I learned that bouncing back from a hardship time help you regain strength because Nathan went threw a lot. However, I did not relate to the novel, but I understood the concept of it. The title of this book speaks out loud about the inner struggle that he dealt. I did relate to the racial incidents and wanting to work early to have the best appearance. I actually did enjoy the
It also shows us that whites and blacks are equal regardless of the skin colour. The point of equality is supported by the fact that Nat’s plans for freedom do not work, but we understand that he had a lot of intelligence to plan that rebellion. This proves to us that blacks have equal intelligence as the whites since everyone is equal. The author tries to take us back to the ages of slavery and make us suffer with the slaves so as to feel what it was really like. The author succeeds in making us feel the pain, and he succeeds in making us get that clear picture of what happened.
This story is great in a way that it gives us an alternative view of the past but still able to tell us the correct past. The entire time Whitehead tries to expand the idea of freedom and give us multiple views of that idea. Juan G. Vasquez from The New York Times was totally correct when he said “ The Underground Railroad achieves the task by small shifts in perspective”. Colson is able to tell one story using many point of views. We got to see the white supremacy in the story. White supremacist is such a crazy thing that it makes those whites look delusional as something so cruel can feel so right to them. Whitehead describes a scene as “ all ages rushed” to lynch one girl. That is some savage humans just ready take a life away because of their mentality. Whitehead gives the reality of how it was to be a black in those times. For example the road called “ Freedom Trails” which sounds like the road every African American wanted but it wasn’t. It was a street to publicly send a message to all the people against slavery which include slaves and abolitionist by lynching them. The freedom trail technically was for “the night riders” as they saw they were liberating their freedom as they saw blacks as threat. We get an raw visual of what how inhuman some whites were towards
“Though it is a painful fact that most Negroes are hopelessly docile, many of them are filled with fury, and the unctuous coating of flattery which surrounds and encases that fury is but a form of self-preservation.”, a famous quote by “The Confession of Nat Turner “What is the Confession of Nat Turner? Well it all start with knowing who is Nat Turner?
I never thought that I would read a book over the summer, but over the course of these past two months, that changed. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” forever changed how I view slavery. I loved reading it. Throughout the whole novel, Stowe uses her experience and knowledge to portray the terrible hardships and struggles that slaves endured everyday. Not only does this book express the thoughts of the slaves and their faith in God, but also of the people around them. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” wanted so badly for America to give freedom and equality for all people, and that is what I enjoyed most while reading.
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. An American Slave Written by Himself. (New Haven, Ct: Yale University Press, 2001)
Frederick Douglass was an orator and writer for the abolition movement. He was born into slavery and knows from personal experience how the institution dehumanizes everyone involved. His masters’ wife taught him the alphabet which was the start of Douglass learning how to write and speak out against slavery. His Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass was an attempt to describe the peculiar institution of slavery with out disrupting the sensibilities of his readers. In order to accomplish this Douglass must get his audience to relate to and identify with his life as a slave. He incorporated the same exploitive techniques used in the sentimental novel. This was an 18th century European novel style that engaged readers’ emotions to gain supporters for a particular cause. Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass appealed to the sensibilities of his readers by evoking emotions of sympathy and compassion causing his readers to identify with slavery and label it unnatural.
In the book, he describes the history of the Colonial era and how slavery began. He shows us how the eighteenth century progressed and how American slavery developed. Then it moves onto the American Revolution, and how the American slaves were born into class. It was this time that the slave population was more than twice what it had been. The Revolutionary War had a major impact on slavery and on the slaves.
Throughout the novel, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass provides a powerful insight to the world of slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries. After Douglass escaped the reigns of slavery, he became an anti-slavery advocate, educator, politician, and renowned public speaker, traveling abroad and sharing his story, eventually publishing an autobiography in 1845. Douglass makes a firm argument against slavery, emotionally affecting the reader while presenting himself as an ethical, compassionate, and resourceful individual.
The story clearly illustrates that when one thinks of their ideal lifestyle they mainly rely on their personal experience which often results in deception. The theme is conveyed by literary devices such as setting, symbolism and iconic foreshadowing. The abolition of slavery was one step forward but there are still several more steps to be made. Steps that protect everyone from human trafficking and exploitation. Most importantly, racism is something that needs to stop, as well as providing equal opportunity to all without discrimination.
The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass can be referred to as a memoir and writing about the abolitionist movement of the life of a former slave, Fredrick Douglass. It is a highly regarded as the most famous piece of writing done by a former slave. Fredrick Douglass (1818-1895) was a social reformer, statesman, orator and writer in the United States. Douglass believed in the equality of every individual of different races, gender or immigrants.