The Fires of Jubilee

Belinda Phan

The August 1831 slave insurrection led by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia is a macabre testimonial to the evils of slavery demonstrated by both the enslaved and the oppressors. The book, Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turners Fierce Rebellion, (New York: Harper and Row, 1975), by Stephen Oates., provides a historic and accurate accounting of the madness and the method behind it.

Oates is a writer more adept at historical biographical writing than most. Having obtained a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin "He is currently a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts where he teaches courses in antebellum and the art of biography."

Oates demonstrates a passion for American history that is clear to the reader from the outset. It is admirable that Oates is able to write with such clarity about events that occurred a hundred years or more before he was born. The language used is powerful but not overly flowery, more than adequate for a collegiate student audience.

Oates has over nine historical novels under his belt including a biography of John Brown. Praise must also be given to Oates for tackling controversial subject matter,

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(i.e. slavery), with an open mind and a level pen.

Oates, while penning The Fires of Jubilee, was determined to create not just a historical retelling of the same story of the Turner uprising found in most high school history annals. The Fires of Jubilee is a chronicle of the 1831 Southampton slave rebellion. Sixty whites were murdered, including women, small children and infants, by a band of forty or so marauding slaves led by Nat Turner. The uprising set off a powder keg of fear among the southern states, igniting random lynchings, beatings and violence against many blacks in the area. Turner and many of his accomplices were eventually convicted and hung for their crimes but not before severe damage had been done to the complacent attitude towards the "peculiar institution"

Oates desire to truthfully portray the pervasive climate in which the rebellion was conceived, to honestly characterize the ringleader, mutineers, and victims of the rebellion, as well as delve into the repercussions that followed is commendable. This is the core of the book.

All of the facts of the rebellion are backed up with factual documentation. Oates traveled to the site of the rebellion and examined actual court transcripts. Oates also visited several other archives to obtain information on Phan p. 3

property (slave) bills of sale, militia records, and Governor Floyd's personal diaries.

A detailed section of endnotes following the text is provided for easy reference.

The book is very well written. The reader is able to really get a sense of the despair that must have been experienced by the African slaves on a daily basis. The views of the Caucasians in the book are also adroitly explored. The extensive dialog about the Governor's point-of-view towards the rebellion and the rallying of militia may have been a bit drawn out, but this does attest to the historical accuracy of the book.