The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion

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, 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 show more 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