Book Review: The Fires of Jubilee

 
 

The inclusion of 'Fierce' in the subtitle was no accident.

Stars: 4/5

The Fires of Jubilee is an historic account of one of the most significant slave rebellions on American soil.  Thanks to Oates exhaustive research, The Fires... provides a vivid portrayal of the gruesome deeds that Nat Turner and his band of brothers committed on that fateful day in August of 1831. 

Nat Turner, as described, was more than a slave.  By all standards, he was literate, intelligent and presented himself as a decent and trustworthy slave.   Most importantly, he was, as some considered, blessed with divine gifts and was tormented with possessing such power and yet still a slave:

“... behind Nat’s well-mannered facade was a messianic individual who felt himself driven into some corner of slavery from which there was no return.  He was like a powerful angel whose wings were nailed to the floor.” (p.41)

Nat believed that the brutality he unleashed was for a higher purpose; a ‘you shall reap what you sow’ exhibition that would somehow reveal the wrongs of slavery .

Around the time of the rebellion, Oates frames the role of the abolitionist movement as well as offering insight into the political climate of the day.  Both of which contributed to pitting North and South against each other in that critical time period leading up to the most tempestuous season in American History; the Civil War.

 
video source:  excerpt from Africans in America: Brotherly Love (1791-1831)
 
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