Fires of Jubilee by Stephen Oates

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Fires of Jubilee

For these were the years when Methodist evangelists , out to save America from Satan and to build a mighty church for themselves , rode across Virginia , North Carolina , Tennessee , and Kentucky , presenting Methodism in smoking , earth language few people could resist . By 1801 frenzied camp meetings lit up the Southern backwoods .all joined in the evangelical crusade against godlessness (Stephen B . Oates , 1990 br

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In August of 1831 , a young African-American slave looked up into the American sky . Surrounding

the sun was a bluish-green aura that mysteriously glowed . He had recognized other signs he had seen other visions . However , this , Nat Turner knew , was to be the final one . It meant that the time had come

The Fires of Jubilee : Nat 's Final Rebellion recounts the events that led up to the slave uprising , which occurred in Southampton Country , Virginia , in August 1831 . Taking the reader back into the history of American slavery , historian and author , Stephen B . Oates describes Turner 's ethnic roots , his childhood , and the manner in which his religious convictions led him to the belief that God was instructing him to lead an uprising against the oppressive white slave-owners . The author then gives a detailed report of the horrific and bloody insurrection that followed . The book ends with the death of Nat Turner and the political and social consequences in the aftermath of the uprising

The eclipse of the sun during August 1831 , which gave out the strange bluish-green aura , was considered by Turner to be the final sign in a series of prophetic messages that he had apparently been receiving from God . His interpretation of this cosmic event resulted in the deaths of almost three hundred people , including women and children , and changed the historical face of America

Nat Turner 's childhood was spent on a small , but prosperous , cotton plantation that was situated in Virginia . He was raised in an oppressive atmosphere that never allowed him to forget that he was owned , and was a regular witness of injustice and indiscrimination . His mother , a native African , could remember their homeland , which meant that Nat 's childhood was filled with her passionate hatred of slavery , and probably tales of her previous life in Africa . Nat could also remember his father attempting to run away , and the obligatory punishment that he would have received upon his capture . Surviving under the most strictest and harshest of conditions , he often saw indescribable acts of violence that could not have failed to have scarred his young mind

Turner was owned by a deeply religious Methodist family , who believed in trying to adhere to certain passages of the Bible that described how Christians should treat their slaves . The outcome of this was that the young Nat was taught how to read , and he also attended Bible classes , which he delighted in . In many ways , however , and despite the moral teachings of the Bible , this excessiveness in religious learning could have affected Nat...