The Fires of Jubilee

The Fires of Jubilee Stephen B . Oates , a professor of History at the University of Massachusetts , Amherst is an award winning civil war era expert . The Fires of Jubilee : Nat Turner 's Fierce Rebellion ' is one of sixteen books written by him

This book is primarily a biography and infamous insurrection of Nat Turner . Stephen B . Oates has explained the expressions and optimism of the early mid 19th century by performing the rigorous study of the prevailing situation and related events during an extraordinary period in American History . The amazing presentation

of the book has more emphatically established the writing capabilities of Stephen B Oates

This book begins with the detailed biography of Nat Turner . Nat was born on October 17 ,1800 in Southampton County , Virginia . Nancy his mother was purchased and brought to America by one wealthy tidewater planter Benjamin Turner . The name of Nat 's father is not known . Amazingly , Nancy tried to kill Nat as she was not willing to see her son grown as a slave but probably she could not kill her motherly instinct to do this ghastly act . Right from the childhood Nat started attracting people due to his unique characters . Once he was heard by his mother telling his friends about one of the incidence , which took place even before his birth . He was able to read books despite the fact that no body taught Nat to read It will not be out of place to mention that education among slaves during those days was very rare . Benjamin Turner , his master , was extremely impressed with Nat and often remarked to friends he would never be of service to anyone as a slave . From birth , Nat was influenced by religion , as his actual name was Nathaniel , which means Gift of God (11 . He also learned a lot of what he knew about religion from the Turner 's family . The Turner 's believed in Christianizing the slaves for a better time ahead (10 . Nat 's life started getting changed in a great way from 1809 when his father escaped slavery to north , never to be seen again and soon after his master Benjamin Turner died . In 1810 Nat became the official property of Samuel Turner , eldest son of Benjamin Turner . Samuel was a bachelor and also very religious in approach . The general approach of the white and particularly holders of the slaves , were to utilize Christianity to teach black that God is supreme and he allows slavery because white people are superior to black . A good slave should not question Gods authority but should carry out his duties cheerfully . Despite the fact that slaves were the backbone of Plantation and other agricultural activities in America , many slaveholders in this time were not comfortable with the slave situation . In 1790 a full-scale slave rebellion had rocked of Santo Domingo . In 1799 while carrying slaves in Southampton County two white guards were killed . Gabriel Prosser conspiracy in Richmond in 1800 is considered to be the first...