Essay on The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B Oates

The Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates is a recreation of the events that took place during a deadly slave revolt in 1831. It was led by a slave named Nat Turner, who claimed to have heard voices ordering him to carry out the rebellion. He took it that the voices were orders were voices from God. Nat Turner was born in 1800. He was seen as intelligent from his early days and as a result his masters had resolved not to use him as a slave. They however him in the fields and treated him as a slave when he was old enough to work. This could have led to frustrations and hence the rebellion.

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Nat Turner had been allowed to read by his masters and he used to study the bible. He was eventually allowed to hold church sermons alone. He therefore had a number of followers who came to listen to his sermons. He could have used his position in the church influence other slaves into the revolt of the morning of August 21st 1831.

It is quite evident that the revolt caught the slave owners of Southampton County, Virginia by surprise. Otherwise it would not have gone to such devastating extremes. In the 1820s, before the 1831 revolt, slaves were not subjected to very harsh rules in Virginia as was the case in the Deep South. In that regard, slave owners in Virginia could have thought they had a better understanding with their slaves. They therefore could not have anticipated that kind of revolt. Nat Turner was religious and that could have been a reason for his owners to trust him and not imagine he could lead a revolt. The rules drastically become very harsh after the revolt. The whites had become more fearful and wanted to make sure they contained the slaves. The slaves were no longer allowed to read or hold sermons on their own. Also, there was very severe punishment for those who went against the rules.

Nat Turners master Joseph Travis and other white seems to have not though that any ill could come out Nat turner religious activities. Nat Turner used his free time to study the bible and he got so good that he started preaching sermons at the local Methodist church. He started holding church meetings with other slaves and his master seems to have trusted him a lot because these meetings were unsupervised.

I tend to come from the school of thought that Nat Turners acts were more out of frustrations rather than hoping to achieve something. Nat Turner had grown hoping that he would be free one day as his Masters had discussed of not using him as a slave since he was intelligent. It however did not turn out this way and his actions could have been out of frustration. He was wise enough to know that he could not achieve much from a rebellion and that all odds were against him. The revolted was short lived. It lasted for less than three days. Although a number of whites had been killed during the revolt, a much large number of slaves were killed in retaliation and vengeance by the white militia men. Nat must have been very sure of the outcome of his actions even before he started but just did it out of frustration.

The title of the book describes the rebellion as fierce. This is in light of the bloody events perpetrated by Nat and his followers. They seem very intent of causing as much harm as much possible to their white owners. Nat could have brainwashed his followers into believing that they were executing Gods orders. This could have been the reason they had no qualms about killing women and children. Whether Nat Turner heard voices or not is something no one can ascertain. Even if he did no one can tell whether they orders from Gods. Either way Nat Turner seems to have had no mercy for children and women.

Whites reaction to the rebellion was equally as bloody as the rebellion itself. 56 slaves were executed in Virginia for taking part in the revolt and around 200 slaves were killed in retaliatory attacks by the whites. The whites in Southampton had not been very harsh to their slaves and accorded them some freedom. They seemed to have a somewhat cordial relationship with their slaves. The whites form the deeper south were stricter and less trusting to their slaves. After the revolt the whites were all over were weary of more slave rebellion. The retaliatory killings of the slaves also made the whites fearful of widespread revolts among the slaves. They therefore imposed harsh rules on them in an attempt to make sure they could not plan a revolt.

It is difficult to judge the actions of Nat Turner in light of the situations of the time. On one hand freeing his people was a noble cause. Freedom is a fundamental right to all human beings. On the other hand killing women and children was cruel. It is unclear of what Nat Turner intended to achieve. As indicated earlier must have known that trying to free his people, especially using violence, would be an impossible feat and would have very dire consequences. Again, about his religious beliefs, no one can tell whether its true he heard voices or not. Whichever the case, as intelligent as he was, he should have read between the lines and known that such a revolt would have done more harm to his people than good.

The whites response of killing 200 slaves was completely unjust. Many of them had nothing to do with the uprising and it was therefore not prudent to kill them. The way Oates describes it, Nat Turner with his followers were hanged and their bodies skinned and their flesh used for greasing. That would have been a clear warning to other slaves not to think of engaging in such activities again.

The rebellion brought along tremendous implications for both the blacks and the whites. Many blacks were killed in the south and the slaves were subjected to very harsh rules. There was reduced pressure from law makers who had before advocated for the abolition of slavery. Whites were left in fear of revolts while there was pressure from the north to make education possible for the slaves. The southern white thought educating the slaves was causing them to plan uprisings and be able to revolt. Most northern whites did not agree to slavery but were not enthusiastic about Turners actions either. They were particularly advocating for the education of the slaves.