Research Paper on:
Fires of Jubilee by Stephen B. Oates

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
discounted with several rationalizations. They told themselves that slaves were basically happy with their situation, or they considered slaves too passive to be capable of such aggression. On August 22,  1831, the Southern white sense of security was forever shattered by a slave mystic named Nat Turner, who organized and led the only sustained slave insurrection in the antebellum South.  Stephen B. Oates, credentials & qualifications as a biographer Professor of History and a Paul Murray Kendall Professor of Biography at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Stephen B.  Oates recounts the remarkable story of Nat Turner in his biography The Fires of Jubilee, Nat Turners Fierce Rebellion. Winner of the Christopher Award and the Robert F. Kennedy  Memorial Book Award, Mr. Oates is acclaimed by many for his thirteen books and numerous articles. As this indicates, Oates has impressive credentials. Also, his text is extensively notated, indicating  his considerable scholarship in producing this text. However, in regards to Oates background, there is a controversy that has accused Oates of plagiarism. In response to these charges, twenty-three  nationally prominent historians issued a public statement reject these allegation as unfounded. However, Oates principal accuser, Michael Burlingame asserts that two of these defenders retracted their support after Burlingame showed  them extensive evidence of plagiarism in two of Oates biographies. In his own defense, Oates accuses Burilngame of taking quotes out of context. Oates asserts that when one examines the  pages these passages come from, it is easy to see that the "writing, organization, emphasis, and interpretations" are far different in his books than in the texts that he is  accused of plagiarizing (Oates). Oates scholarship in The Fires of Jubilee certainly appears exemplary. Therefore, for the purposes of this paper, his innocence will be assumed. Summary