Summary Of The Fires Of Jubilee

The Fires of Jubilee takes a look at the life and rebellion of a Southampton county Virginia’n slave, Nathaniel Turner. This report is a summary of the book beginning with his early life to the beginning and the history of his rebellion. Even more important than his rebellion is the legacy it left of the old south, and the fears it echoed in the years before the civil war. The book reports on a life of a man that lived nearly 200 years ago, yet it lessons can be applied to today’s time. Nathaniel's Turner’s rebellion shares many themes with the modern Ferguson protests and the uproar in the black community there, and their pursuit of justice and equality.

Before we can compare the two situations we must first take a look at Nat’s story and

So Nat wasted no time, he used his influence as a local pastor for slaves to help rally support. He secretly preached against the slave owners while also finding people he could trust to carry out his final plan. Then one day in February 1831 Nat saw an Eclipse in the sky, which was all the confirmation he needed to put his plans in full motion. He called upon his closest friends Hank, Nelson, Henry, and Sam (whom he called his lieutenants) and told them of his plan to strike farm by farm and kill each white person in sight until they got to the main city in Southampton county, Jerusalem (Fires of Jubilee, pg. 52). Nat originally wanted to strike of the 4th of July, knowing that most people would be drunk from the day of partying but he had his doubts and called it off last minute. Whatever his doubts might have been they would soon subside due to what Nat saw as another sign from god, in reality however it was an atmospheric disturbance that turned the sun dim and change colors including a black spot on the surface(Fires of Jubilee,

The first farm they struck was the Travis’ farm where they made their attack killing the four whites inside in a brutal fashion. So brutal in fact they even killed a baby in its cradle while it slept. The brutality continued the rest of the night as they went from farm to farm killing everything that had white skin, including a school house full of children.They gathered up supplies including weapons, whiskey, and new recruits from every farm and location they attacked. When it came time to attack the main town of Jerusalem on Monday morning Nat had grown from 7 men to a total of 40 armed and ready to kill insurgents. What Nat didn't realize however was that a few people had escaped his attack and went to alarm the other families, who then formed two small militias to confront Nat as he marched towards the town. Nathaniel soon realized one of the militias as he ordered his outlaw crew to attack them, suffering heavy losses Nat came out victorious, but only momentarily as he was soon attacked by the second militia which sent his small band running. This proved to be the downfall of Nat Turner’s rebellion because besides killing a few more white people Nat was never able to build up his rag tag army and