The four-day slave rebellion organized by Nat Turner in Virginia is among the most remembered events in African-American history. In his book titled The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion, Stephen Oates, who is an expert in 19th century America, explores the biography of “the most famous slave” (p. 7). Regarding the thesis, Oates claims that his book provides an objective account of Nat Turner’s personality and deeds and demonstrates that his bloody rebellion was an essential and predictable response to oppression.
Book organization supports the author’s thesis and purpose by linking facts about Nat’s moving into adulthood to the discussions of the rebellion and its legacy. Oates delves into Nat’s early life and the path to becoming a mind behind the famous revolt of 1831 in four chapters. The first chapter covers Nat’s childhood and his interest in religious and abolitionist ideologies. It also thoroughly reviews Nat’s challenges as an enslaved young man (Oates, p. 32). The next chapters explore the prerequisites to the rebellion, including Nat’s growing obsession with religion and his sense of having a great purpose in life, and how they finally led to the ment Day for White Southerners. The final chapter is fully focused on the revolt’s large-scale consequences, such as Nat’s becoming a legendary Black hero and the total destruction of the White community’s worldview, according to which slaves could live in a harmonious symbiosis with their masters (Oates, p. 105). The logic of the book organization enables Oates to lead the audience through Nat’s and his predecessors’ struggles. Thus, the book explains bloody slave rebellions by showing that what you reap is what you sow.
The historian has done an outstanding job in providing an accurate account of Nat’s life and motivations without making farfetched conclusions. It is because Oates’s thoughts and interpretations are mainly based on primary sources. In particular, he frequently cites Nat Turner’s Confessions to discuss Nat’s religious devotion and its great role in his emergence as a hero for other slaves. His devotion, as Oates demonstrates, was so strong that it even urged him to make controversial decisions, including coming back to Master Samuel after a successful escape (p. 28). To his credit, being a professional historian, Oates never forgets to make distinctions between facts and suggestions; as an example, he recognizes knowledge gaps linked to the ultimate goal of Nat’s rebellion. To make his contribution, he interprets the available historical evidence and suggests that Nat wanted to establish a slave stronghold near the Dismal Swamp to organize raids against entire states (Oates, p. 68). With that in mind, it is reasonable to think that the author maintains an objective tone and follows professional standards as a history researcher.
The author’s claim regarding objectivity finds support in his attempts to give due consideration to controversial things about Nat instead of omitting any detail that would affect his reputation of a hero and a libasator. Of course, the researcher regards slavery as a significant violation of human rights, which makes him recognize Nat’s benevolent intentions and being a victim of the social system based on oppression (Oates, p. 7). However, the author does not dismiss the opinions of Nat’s peers who saw him as a public enemy and a fanatic. For instance, in his discussion of the early investigations into the revolt, Oates mentions Nat’s papers with weird symbols and calculations that brought his sanity into question (p. 102). More than that, despite realizing that slave revolts are an essential response to inequality and decades of being treated as the lowest class, Oates does not try to palter with facts and draw the curtain over Nat’s far-reaching plans. In particular, he accurately cites the man’s extremist messages, such as the desire “to kill all the white people” (Oates, p. 67). Thus, Oates does not seem to be interested in idealizing and whitening Nat.
Next, despite his attempts to tell the true story of Nat Turner based on facts, Oates does not underestimate the role of emotional expressiveness in teaching history and explaining the prerequisites to violence. Instead of simply providing a compilation of cold and impersonal facts, Oates makes extensive use of dramatic narration and aims to make the audience travel in time and live through the struggles of Nat and his Black peers. For instance, there are vivid and expressive descriptions of slaves’ “unendurable lives” full of exhaustive work and limitations (Oates, p. 21). When discussing the legacy of Nat’s revolt in terms of the White community’s disillusionment, Oates also resorts to effective and expressive linguistic means, and it strengthens his overall message (p. 105). Actually, dramatic narration helps the researcher to explain how hardships changed Nat and contributed to his willingness to destroy the state of things in Southampton County by means of indiscriminate violence.
To sum it up, in the discussed work, Oates avoids going to the extremes and whitening or demonizing the controversial figure of Nat Turner. The combination of effective language, well-established facts, and proper book organization also helps the researcher to explain the cause-effect links between decades of being treated as personal property and shockingly violent revolts. Apart from its benefits as a biography, the book sheds light on how the rebellion undermined the foundations of social life in the slave south.
References
Oates, Stephen B. The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion. HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 2007.