being told by a storyteller. His style of writing seems appropriate for students who are at the college level. He occasionally uses the word n-gg-r to emphasize the contempt under which Nat Tuner labored, or the word darkie to indicate how even the best of whites spoke patronizingly of blacks slaves. These usages place the reader in the era of the 1830s. In the beginning of the book, Oates puts the reader at ease with the community and the state of Virginia. Oates conveys an informed picture of the point of views and political opinions of the day. The reader can understand Governor Floyds attitude and that of the idealists upstate. Oates vocabulary level is somewhat advanced, but not so much that the reader could not understand the story. Oates clearly describes the South Hampton County community of the 1830s from nearby neighbors who had freed their slaves to different churches who encouraged masters to emancipate their slaves. Opinions of whites testifying to Nats intelligence and to his familiarity with the Bible, indicate many aspects of an unfair and inhumane situation: So it was a rude awakening for Nat, just as it was for many other slave children who passed through that traumatic time: the first anguished recognition that I am a slave. For Nat it was an especially painful time, for he had been led to believe he might be freed one day (Oates,41). The book sounds like a biblical story told during the slavery era. Nats character was that of a gift of god, according to the locals in South Hampton County (Oates, 11). It was hard to capture the whites at that time manipulating the Bible and contorting its words although they called themselves Christians. Oates portrays the Black slaves as though they were meant to pick cotton fields, raise crops and serve as servants. He also illustrates in detail the sad notion of the inferiority of the slaves and the unjustifiable acts that the white community committed. In retrospect, the nov...
