ng from northern white churchmen, came down to a war of religion that was manifest as a slave revolt.
The religious-war theme that Oates develops can be seen in the way that he organizes the text. The book is divided into chapters that are titled with religious themes. The first chapter, which sets the scene of action, is titled "This Infernal Spirit of Slavery." That phrase is taken from an account of an itinerant Methodist antislavery preacher named Francis Asbury who, as early as the 1780s, in the formative years of the republic, wanted to "banish the infernal spirit of slavery from thy dear Zion" (9), with Zion in context referring to the new nation. The second chapter's title, "Go Sound the Jubilee," is f
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