Introduction
Abolitionism is a movement that began its rapid development in the late 1700s and grew in the 1800s. Initially, the movement was peaceful because it was promoted by religious groups, such as Quakers and Methodists. However, abolitionism later caused bloody rebellions and division of the US, depending on their attitude towards slavery. The transformation of abolitionism can be studied using the book by Stephen Oates titled “The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion.”
The book tells the story of a young African American, Nat Turner, who gathered a small group of slaves and killed slave owners and their families to fight against oppression from white Americans. The present paper describes abolitionists and insurrectionists depicted in the book and discusses how Nat Turner’s rebellion was one of the reasons for the civil war.
Abolitionists
During the decades described by Nat Turner’s story, abolitionists were relatively passive and harmless. Quakers, Methodists, and antislavery Baptists aimed at spreading the word that slavery was “contrary to the laws of God and hurtful to society” (Oates 9). The religious groups were successful in making some people guilty of the fact that they slaves to liberate some of them. These cases were common in backwater Southampton County, where the number of freed slaves began to increase rapidly in the late 1700s (Oates 9). However, abolitionists could make the people of the South abolish slavery altogether, as it was a mechanism that ensured economic prosperity and racial control (Oates 10).
However, abolitionists were often regarded as troublemakers and kooks as they made African Americans realize that they had the right to be free. The idea was dangerous for the slave-owning society because planting such notions into slaves’ minds could “incite them to violence” (Oates 9). Slave owners feared that they would have to deal with riots and took every precaution to avert it.
The abolitionist movement was present both in the North and in the South; however, the North was leading the way. The primary reason for the matter is the fact that the Northern states did not have many African Americans, and the society was industrial (Oates 19). Therefore, the idea that slavery was wrong rapidly developed and led to the eradication of slavery by law, constitution, or court decree (Oates 19).
However, in the South, African Americans often outnumbered the white population and granting them freedom would have led to economic and social instability. Therefore, slavery was often regarded as a “necessary evil” for the Southern states (Oates 20). In some states, slaves were stolen and sold, separating them from their families, which led to a rise of African Americans against the regime (Oates 29). However, instead of acknowledging their faulty behavior, slave owners blamed abolitionists for slavery’s insurrectionists, as they seeded the idea of freedom in the minds of African Americans (Oates 9). It was partially fair because it was the religion that gave Nat Turner the understanding that he had to fight against the oppression of masters.
Consequences of the Rebellion
The consequences of Nat Turner’s rebellion were drastic as they led to social and political instability in the United States. On the local, county, and state levels, the case led to a decade of abominable tariffs and economic panics, obstreperous antislavery activities, and growing slave unrest and insurrection (Oates 129). Southern political powers began to propagate the idea that Northern abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp, planned an ideological attack on the Southern way of living (Oates 130-132).
The Southerners pointed out that eight months after the Liberator was published by Garrison and Knapp, Turner went on his “bloody venture” (Oates 130). Using such argumentation, John Floyd, the governor of Virginia, created a conspiracy theory, which claimed that the North was trying to sabotage the Southern order (Oates 130-134). Ironically, the slaves in the South had not heard about the Liberator and other publications before the Southerners started discussing it actively (Oates 133). Therefore, Turner’s rebellion raised awareness about the idea that African Americans should be freed both directly and indirectly.
While the North gave little attention to the matter, Southern political and religious powers used the events to ensure their dominance. The pro-slavery churches and politicians began to play on the fears of white slave owners to gain influence and popularity while eradicating the influence of the North (Oates 130-145). These tendencies later caused intolerance and aggression towards the Northern states, which gave rise to future conflicts.
Conclusion: Road to Civil War
Overall, Nat Turner’s rebellion can be seen as another step on the road to Civil War. While the situation was seemingly stable, the disparities between the North and the South were growing throughout the beginning of the 1800s. There were complex outside and inside incentives that can explain the explosiveness of the reaction to Turner’s rebellion, such as the agricultural crisis and abolishment of slavery in the North. However, the central reason for the outbreak of the Civil War was the fact that politicians used the fear of revolts to explain the poor state economic, and social state of the South by a conspiracy of the North. In summary, it was not abolitionism itself, but the reaction to the movement that led to the Civil War, and Nat Turner’s rebellion was the final straw.
Works Cited
Oates, Stephen. The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion. HarperCollins Publishers, 1990. Print.