The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion

“A penetrating reconstruction of the most disturbing and crucial slave uprising in America’s history.” —New York Times

The definitive account of the most infamous slave rebellion in history and the aftermath that brought America one step closer to civil war—newly reissued to include the text of the original 1831 court document "The Confessions of Nat Turner"

The fierce slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in Virginia in 1831 and the savage reprisals that followed shattered beyond repair the myth of the contented slave and the benign master, and intensified the forces of change that would plunge America into the bloodbath of the Civil War. Stephen B. Oates, the celebrated biographer of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., presents a gripping and insightful narrative of the rebellion—the complex, gifted, and driven man who led it, the social conditions that produced it, and the legacy it left. 

A classic, here is the dramatic re-creation of the turbulent period that marked a crucial turning point in America's history.

The bloody slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in Virginia in 1831 and the savage reprisals that followed shattered beyond repair the myth of the contented slave and the benign master, and intensified the forces of change that would plunge America into the Civil War. The true story behind the major motion picture The Birth of a Nation, this acclaimed and definitive history is now reissued with the complete text of Turner’s riveting firsthand account, “The Confessions of Nat Turner.”

In The Fires of Jubilee, Stephen B. Oates, the award-winning biographer of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., presents a gripping and insightful narrative of the rebellion—the complex, gifted, and driven man who led it, the social conditions that produced it, and the legacy it left. Here is the dramatic re-creation of the turbulent period that marked a crucial turning point in America’s history.

“A vivid and excellent narrative account.” - New York Times

“Oates writes in a vivid...fashion constructing a meaningful historical context.” - Library Journal

“A penetrating, moving, gripping, eminently successful and readable account of an important event in American history!” - Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“A vivid and convincing re-creation of the rebellion’s black and white violence, breathing life into chilling scenes of mayhem, against a background of slave reality and slave-holding mentality.” - Publishers Weekly

“A much needed correction to historical fantasies. . . . Grounded in the facts and excellently documented, this volume is essential for students of slavery and of the history of violence in America.” - FAWN BRODIE, author of Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History