Antwan Rowel
Mr.Kimbrough
History B20a MW 9:35
November 7, 2011
Fires of Jubilee Pt.4 In The Fires of Jubilee Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion: Stephen Oates gives an account of the brief but deadly slave revolt in and around Southampton, Virginia. His controlling theme is that of religion and the profound influence that it had on the development of Nat Turner's charismatic persona and his rationale for engaging in a project of deliberate murder of people who had at least in the context of slavery as a given of Turner's experience, treated him quite decently. The effects of Nat Turner's rebellion were profound. The insurrection of Nat Turner was inspiration for all slaves, even if just 60 whites were killed to the 140 blacks. I am impressed by his courage. The attitudes of many plantation owners changed as a result of Nat. Many people had believed that slaves would never think of hurting their "loving, Christian" master. What Nat did scared many whites tremendously. The Virginia state legislature actually debated freeing all slaves to avoid future conflict. Of course this never happened but this was the first time that such an idea had ever been discussed. Many slave holders blamed the rebellion on the abolishment movement. The same year of Nat's rebellion, William Lloyd Garrison began publishing "The Liberator". Some people attributed this to the cause of the killings. Laws were passed that forbid teaching slaves to read or write. An educated slave could be a dangerous slave. Within time, the fury of Nat's rebellion diminished. The tariff issue became central to southern politics. But even as Calhoun was battling Jackson for a lower tariff, many Southerners were battling their consciences over the slave issue. In the book we talk about times around the civil war, during the civil war, etc. In the end the book only focuses on what the creator of the books felt as