Summary Of Nat Turner's Rebellion

One of the most controversial topics in society is slavery, but it is one that we must learn about to get a better understanding of what it was like for people during this time. Slavery was a common practice in the United States before the 1800s, and continued up until after the end of the Civil War in 1865. Slavery was found in the southern states as a common practice. Whites would buy and sell coloreds to do manual labor in the fields and house duties around the plantations. In the book The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion we get a glimpse of how life was for colored men and women that were caught in slavery, and how the self-proclaimed prophet Nat Turner led a slave insurrection August 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia. …show more content…
Oates uses both primary and secondary sources when writing The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion. He uses a lot of newspaper articles, the original slave trial records in the Minute book, wills of the Turner family, U.S. Census Returns, Floyd’s diary, and a map of South Carolina in 1831 for some of his primary sources. Some of his secondary sources that he utilized were, Tragle’s volume, essays by Harding and Thelwell, and other books about Nat Turner’s rebellion. While both primary and secondary sources are important to historians, primary sources are actual records from that time, for example, newspaper articles, journals, court documents and so on. Secondary sources are those written by other people (not from the original person), for example, books, or documents that were not printed in the original format. In our reading of The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion, I do not necessarily believe that there was an argument that the author was trying to make. I believe that more less Mr. Oates was trying give us insight into what led up to the insurrection, the insurrection itself and the aftermath. Mr. Oates does not argue the facts of slavery, but gives you meaningful insight into how slaves lived, and how they felt. If there was any argument at all it would be that slavery is one the biggest elements in history and to understand the Civil War we must understand what led up to …show more content…
“I am a slave. It’s not just a word anymore. I am really a slave, a piece of property, to be worked and ordered around like a mule” (Oates, 1975, p. 21). This struck me as harsh because up until the age of twelve black children could play with white children and then all the sudden their childhood was ripped away from them and they were put to work. As a child, I cannot fathom how they can understand that or grasp it. I can understand why they would have hostility and resentment towards their slave holders. Another statement that stood out to me was, “what the whites found there made them retch: ten decapitated children piled in “one bleeding heap” (Oates, 1975, p. 85). Although there was strong resentment for the whites the slaves took no mercy on anyone, not even innocent children. The graphic imagery of this is hard for me to get out of my head because I have such a soft place for kids. I cannot imagine the pain that these slaves felt to harm not only adults but innocent children as well. Both quotes from the book show to how slavery effected blacks from an early age and no matter who you were, you were not safe from the

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