Stephen B. Oates (1936–2021)

Between the foreword and the prologue of The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion, author Stephen Oates inserts a couple of quotations, one by Bruce Catton, which well describes the nature and the quality of this book: For a history book to have any final value, it must be written “not only with the historian's competence but also with the skill, the insight and the demanding conscience of the literary artist.” In this slim volume (154 pages not counting reference notes, show more index, and appendices), Oates shows himself not only a competent and accomplished historian but also a writer of consummate skill.

I found the book of considerable interest both because of the history within it and because of the page-turning narrative with which the author relates that history. Certainly, I had read of Nat Turner's 1831 slave uprising in more general American history books, but none had the detailed recounting of the insurrection that Oates' book contains. Beyond the bloody and methodical massacre of around sixty white slave owners, their wives, children and infants in Southampton County, Virginia, The Fires of Jubilee draws readers a clear picture of the social, cultural, and political milieu of the nation three decades before outbreak of the Civil War. It also covers some of the aftermath of the rebellion, including the deaths of about two hundred Blacks, some following legal trials and hangings and many others at the hands of vigilante groups bent on revenge.

The impact on subsequent state laws of Turner's short-lived but exceptionally lethal war against whites gets a mention in the book, too, with draconian legislation designed to prevent any repetition of the uprising, blame for its occurrence ranging widely from Black preachers to Northern abolitionists. Perhaps, however, it occurred because of one man's charisma and messianic complex, and Turner's psyche and unusual abilities are frequently in Oates' spotlight.

On the larger stage, the national debate between states' rights versus authority of the Federal government was still in full swing when Turner made his violent entrance only 55 years after the Declaration of Independence was written and 48 years after the American Revolution ended. Remembering that the Constitution was rampant with compromises necessary to achieve ratification, the extent of state versus Federal authority was still far from settled, with states claiming the right to nullify Federally-imposed tariffs which they feared would limit their economic development. The impact of such contentious debates and economic factors on Southern attitudes toward slavery also makes an appearance in the book.

In short, Oates presents a complete and encompassing picture of American culture and the place of slavery within it in surprisingly few pages. The explosion of Nat Turner's rebellion shocked not only Virginian but all of Southern white society and generated a reaction that reverberates to this day even among some who are ignorant of the events of 1831. Stephen Oates has produced a book important in its history and highly readable in its presentation. It is surely nothing less than a five-star read. show less

Abraham Lincoln spoke his famous phrase “with malice toward none, with charity for all” in his second inaugural address. 41 days later, he took a bullet to the head, dying the next morning without regaining consciousness, the first of America’s murdered presidents.

The man whom a lifelong friend described as one who “always tried to plant a flower [of kindness] when he thought one would grow” fell to a cruelty with roots that persist into our own day. Because we know how his story show more ends, biographies of America’s sixteenth president often move in shadow. The man is lost in the martyr, the human in the symbol.

Stephen B. Oates, late professor of history at Amherst University, masterfully lifts the veil of civic godhood to present the person of Abraham Lincoln: born into poverty but intensely proud, intelligent, and ambitious; a self-made circuit-riding prairie lawyer at home in high society or low; skeptical of organized religion yet increasingly reverential toward that power whose purposes will not be denied; hollowed out by deep depressions and yet the unyielding rock of Union hopes.

Oates’s skill at charting Lincoln’s inner life is evident in his account of the long road to Lincoln’s most singular achievement: the Emancipation Proclamation. As Oates recounts Lincoln’s evolution toward this pivot point, it becomes hard to imagine that any other president would’ve done it. Many would’ve fought for the Union; none would have freed the slaves.

Lincoln always found slavery an affront to his own political gospel as embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Unique in his generation, he cherished no pride of superiority over blacks. As Frederick Douglass said, Lincoln was “the first great man that I talked with in the United States freely who in no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and myself, of the difference of color.”

Still, Lincoln was a Union man, a party organizer, and a pragmatist. For most of his career, he asserted that the federal government could not interfere with slavery in the states, and advocated gradual emancipation and colonization of freed slaves elsewhere. He recognized that whites both North and South hated and feared blacks, and fell in with the common wisdom that a mixed society couldn’t exist.

The war changed this as nothing else could. As it stumbled on, liberal Republicans savaged Lincoln for not freeing slaves by presidential fiat, conservative Republicans warned him not to turn this into a war for black freedom, and Union Democrats fixed wary eyes on this backwoods huckster who might tear off his mask of moderate centrism to reveal a lawless abolitionist.

Lincoln only saw his way clear to proclaiming freedom to Confederate-owned slaves as bodies fell, blood rose, and the twin demands of total war and European neutrality created conditions which he believed justified a revolutionary measure. Once his decision was made, though, nothing could turn him from his purpose. As Lincoln said, “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”

Lincoln is one of the most fascinating of America’s presidents, and Oates brings out his character in clear and tragic strokes. Oates’s award-winning biography has been dogged by accusations of plagiarism, and there may be some truth to the charges. Oates professed himself deeply hurt to the point of damaging his health, and he largely withdrew from public view until his death in 2021. Whatever the case, his work remains a notable achievement, a pleasure to read, and one of the most accessible popular biographies of the Great Emancipator. show less

In this small but valuable volume, Oates explores the reality beyond the two sources of Lincoln myth: the primary myth of a saintly and folkloric Lincoln of Carl Sandburg and a secondary myth of the 'white honky' Lincoln of the 1970's revisionists. Oates emphasizes that Lincoln drew deeply upon the "spirit of his age", which was a profoundly revolutionary time across the world. Oates relates how Lincoln absorbed one of the core lessons of America from the example of Henry Clay: : "in this show more country one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably".

That slavery was the cause of the Civil War is beyond all doubt. As Oates explains, however, the North did not go to war to free the slaves. In the standard phrasing, the North went to war to 'preserve the union'. Oates explores Lincoln's fears that the spread of slavery in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision would lead to the destruction of democratic society. The debate then still raged on the world stage whether a republican form of government could last. Lincoln rejected the "ingenious sophism" that states could freely leave the Union. "With rebellion thus sugar coated [southern leaders] have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years." Secession posed nothing less than a final challenge to popular government. If a minority could destroy the government any time it felt aggrieved, then no government could endure. Thus the war had to be fought to preserve not just the American Republic, but the possibility of republican government.

Lincoln did in fact oppose slavery from early on. His views on racial matters apart from slavery became more fully progressive over time. Lincoln, however, hoped that slavery would slowly melt away in a losing competition with free labor and that liberated slaves would resettle in Africa. It is part of Lincoln's greatness that he later gave up these views. Oates explores this evolution in his thinking. Oates debunks the notion that the Emancipation Proclamation was unimportant in liberating the slaves. Oates also refutes the notion that Lincoln would have favored an easy hand during Reconstruction. On the contrary, the evidence strongly suggests he would have led the so-called Radical Republicans.

Highly recommended for any reader with an interest in Lincoln, the Civil War era, or really pretty much any American. show less

Wonderful, scholarly biography of Clara Barton by a well known Civil War scholar. This is one of the few places where Barton's battlefield nursing experiences are described in great detail. Well documented and authoritative.