The Fires Of Jubilee Book Report
The Fires of Jubilee:
Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion
By: Stephen B. Oats
Dual Credit U.S. History
2nd-Nine Week Book Report
By Taina Ferrer
Shoemaker High School
December 12, 2013
Stephen B. Oates, author of The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion was a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and he was an expert in 19th-century American history. This book was an excellent read that would keep anyone on the edge of their seat the entire time they read the book. It was written in a way that was very easy to understand which made the book that much better. Oates also made sure to reveal to his readers who the mysterious Nat Turner really was. Oates was also the author of the books With Malice Toward None which won the Christopher Award and Let the Trumpet Sound which also won the Christopher Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award. In this book, Oates vividly reenacted the events that fueled Nat’s mindset, the events that took place during Nat Turner’s rebellion, and the effects that it had after. Oates began with an extremely thorough biography of Nat Turner who was born on October 2nd, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. As a child, everyone who met Nat knew that he was a special, for he was very intelligent, religious, literate, and was also believed to be a prophet by many of his fellow slaves. Nat’s intelligence was praised by his first master, Benjamin Turner, but not by his son, Samuel Turner, who became Nat’s new owner after Benjamin had passed and he did not appreciate his intelligence as much. It was also during this time that Nat first began slave work at the age of twelve under Samuel Turner. This was also the first time that he recognized that he was a slave even though he had been led to believe by whites and blacks alike that he would be freed one day because he was so smart. This event in Nat’s life could have been first time he developed his resentment toward the white man. From that moment
Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion
By: Stephen B. Oats
Dual Credit U.S. History
2nd-Nine Week Book Report
By Taina Ferrer
Shoemaker High School
December 12, 2013
Stephen B. Oates, author of The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion was a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and he was an expert in 19th-century American history. This book was an excellent read that would keep anyone on the edge of their seat the entire time they read the book. It was written in a way that was very easy to understand which made the book that much better. Oates also made sure to reveal to his readers who the mysterious Nat Turner really was. Oates was also the author of the books With Malice Toward None which won the Christopher Award and Let the Trumpet Sound which also won the Christopher Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award. In this book, Oates vividly reenacted the events that fueled Nat’s mindset, the events that took place during Nat Turner’s rebellion, and the effects that it had after. Oates began with an extremely thorough biography of Nat Turner who was born on October 2nd, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. As a child, everyone who met Nat knew that he was a special, for he was very intelligent, religious, literate, and was also believed to be a prophet by many of his fellow slaves. Nat’s intelligence was praised by his first master, Benjamin Turner, but not by his son, Samuel Turner, who became Nat’s new owner after Benjamin had passed and he did not appreciate his intelligence as much. It was also during this time that Nat first began slave work at the age of twelve under Samuel Turner. This was also the first time that he recognized that he was a slave even though he had been led to believe by whites and blacks alike that he would be freed one day because he was so smart. This event in Nat’s life could have been first time he developed his resentment toward the white man. From that moment