Analysis Of The Fires Of Jubilee By Stephen B. Oates

The Fires of Jubilee “By the enlightened ideal that all men were born equal, that all enjoyed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and had a natural right to rebel when those rights were denied” (Oates 16). I feel this quote accurately describes why Nat Turner committed the actions that he did as described in “The Fires of Jubilee”. Stephen B. Oates, the author, is a considerable man who “endeavors to be fair to all parties concerned, while at the same time allowing himself the liberty of making psychological surmises within the strict limits of the evidence available” (Lederer). He is an amazing author who I believe to be very clear in laying out how these significant events occurred as well as what was happening in that time period. I will discuss my personal opinion of the book, its events that took place, and how I believe Nat did the right thing in addition to how he ended up succeeding in making things better.
Oates’s overall writing style. I was also quite happy to discover his reference notes in the back; these helped authenticate the book immensely in my opinion. He had clearly done his research on Nat Turner. This book did start off a bit slow and could have used a bit more depth or action in the beginning, but when things really started moving it was very exhilarating to read. The Fires of Jubilee, in my opinion, was a fantastic depiction of what had occurred at the time to make the slaves begin revolting. The author did a fantastic job of making his points clear and talking about Nat’s story while accompanying it with historical