The Fires of Jubilee - Book Report/Review Example

The Fires of Jubilee: Book report The Fires of Jubilee is a straight forward account by Nat Turner. The book revolves around Nat Turner and his surroundings. It is set in the backdrop of Virginia backwater where it took place. Oates through most of this book depicts Turner’s life as a brilliant child. Turner was brilliant and spectacular as a child. He hoped and expected to be free but his hopes were shattered after he was sold. The book is largely about the gory rampage and the suppressive ways of those days.

Oates treads on a very careful path in his book. He does not indulge in psychological speculations or take an explicit stand with William Styron or his critics. The rebellion took place in 1831 in rural Virginia. The book is more of a historical account and narrates the events that led to the bloodiest rebellion of all times in Southern History. Oates has projected a very dark encounter of the rebellion. He has made use of the statements and claims which can’t be proven or confirmed. His stance as a neutral bystander or a sympathetic historian comes across as vague and bleak at various points in the novel.

One can’t really tell what he is trying to imply or what he is up to at certain assertions that he has made in the book. This said, the book is a good read and is a very endearing and engaging historical account. It keeps the reader hooked till the last moment. The only problem with the book is the authenticity of its various claims. It can give people of today’s era a tainted picture of the historical perspective of one of the bloodiest eras of American history. Oates depiction of Turner and his association with Margaret Whitehead gives a brief insight into the women of that era.

Margaret Whitehead was the white woman Turner murdered. The epilogue is a bit embarrassing and is about Oates and his weird experiences in the Southampton County when he visited there with his wife. Overall, the book depicts Turner as someone brilliant but a deranged religious visionary. He pioneered the slave revolt. Had it not been for him, the slave revolt would have never succeeded and neither would they have gained any freedom without launching such an explicit assault. The novel is a very fascinating account of the slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in Virginia.

While the author has attempted an objective depiction, he is unable to stop himself from giving some prejudices that he felt in that era. While Oates is honest, he keeps his limits intact. The rebellion lasted 48 hours. As an aftereffect of the revolt, around 48 black men and women were executed and charged of conspiracy and treason. The women of Southampton County also lived the lives of slaves. They were subjected to the same trauma as the men. In the end of the rebellion: “"In total, the state executed 55 people, banished many more, and acquitted a few.

The state reimbursed the slaveholders for their slaves. But in the hysterical climate that followed the rebellion, close to 200 black people were killed by white militias and mobs.” Turner evaded capture for many months. On the 30th of October, Benjamin Philips found him in a hole and Turner was evicted. Following this, a trial was arranged and on Nov 5, 1831 Nat Turner was sentenced to death. Sequels to this book followed after Turner’s capture and another book was published called “The Confessions of Nat Turner”.

The book was a byproduct of Gray’s research when Turner was hiding. The book is a window into Turner’s mind. The book may not be extraordinary but it is widely regarded as one of the darkest books of its era. Its depiction of the slave rebellion is stunning and is endearing to the reader. Works Cited Herbert Aptheker. American Negro Slave Revolts. 5th edition. New York: International Publishers, 1983 (1943). Print ---. Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion. New York: Humanities Press, 1966. Print Junius P.

Rodriguez, ed. Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006. Print Kenneth S. Greenberg, ed. Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print Scot French. The Rebellious Slave: Nat Turner in American Memory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 2004. Print Thomas R. Gray, The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrections in Southampton, Va. Baltimore: Lucas & Deaver, 1831. Print Walter L. Gordon III. The Nat Turner Insurrection Trials: A Mystic Chord Resonates Today (Booksurge, 2009). Print