The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Tuner’s Fierce Rebellion

In the article, “The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion”, author Stephen B. Oates argues that black slaves like Nat Turner revolted against harsh white’s who infringed on their freedom, even though many groups uprisings did not occur. Southampton was a small town in Virginia, consisting of many identical looking homes and plantations. Southampton claimed not to be harsh with their slaves at all and Oates makes it palpable that the white slave owners would give their black slaves many freedoms. Some of these included, going to church (sitting in the top), setting up praise meetings, and singing and dancing.

Not everybody would find a reason to stay or tolerate this kind of treatment by the “white folk”. One of these brave men would be “General Nat”, an intelligent rebel who was thought to be a “prophet”. Turner was born the property of Benjamin Turner and later sold off to another owner. Everyone thought he was too smart to be a slave and that his brilliance would be wasted. Oates however explains how Turner had spirits talk to him about freedom, and finally one day he heard a spirit tell him to break away and escape from the evil. This would be known as the “bloodiest slave revolt in Southern history”. Turner gathered a small group of about eight black slaves together to kill almost every unscrupulous white man including infants and children. Oates explains how the reason that Turner gathered such a small group was because in other fruitless attempts word would leak out and the big group would get into more trouble.

Turner knew his small group would be able to cause a bigger impact on the white society because it would catch all the white men by surprise and no one would know. He and his men went to their own farms first to kill their slave owners. They killed the Tuner family including the infant. Oates explains that the men would use quit weapons to not awake any other people in the town. After going all over town killing many slaves the men would get caught by a group of militia, and town citizens. Turner was not found until later, but everyone involved would be hanged or put in jail for a while. Even though “the march of destruction” was soon ended it still left a big mark on society. Oats states that a long time after, people would go to sleep thinking about the “insurrection” and being afraid that another Nat Turner would come up and slit their throat or lynch them in their sleep.

His actions towards freedom had increased the severity of the slave codes. A stronger militia had also arisen, but it would still increase chances for freedom in the future. Nat Tuner was a hero and he helped America come one step closer to end discrimination towards African Americans. Stephen B Oates shows that even one person can make a difference in society, just like Samuel Adams in his efforts towards independence.