Gabriel (rebel)
Gabriel (
1776-
1800), today also known as
Gabriel Prosser, was a
slave born in
Henrico County, Virginia who planned a failed
slave rebellion in the summer of 1800. Born on Brookfield, the slave of Thomas Prosser, Gabriel had two brothers, Solomon and Martin. Most likely, Gabriel's father was a blacksmith, the occupation chosen for Gabriel and for Solomon. By the mid-1790s, as he neared the age of twenty, he stood "six feet two or three inches high." A long and "bony face, well made," was marred by the loss of his two front teeth and "two or three scars on his head." Whites as well as blacks regarded the literate young man as "a fellow of great courage and intellect above his rank in life." His wife, about whom almost nothing is known, was named Nanny.
Gabriel had been meticulously planning the revolt since the spring. On
August 30,
1800, Gabriel hoped to lead the slaves into Richmond, but torrential rains postponed the rebellion. The slaves' masters had suspicion of the uprising, and before it could be carried out two bondmen notified their master, who got in turn warned Virginia Governor
1799-
1802 James Monroe, who called out the state
militia. Gabriel tried to escape north on a schooner sailing for Norfolk, but was spotted and betrayed a fellow slave for the reward. Gabriel was returned to Richmond for questioning, but he would not submit. Gabriel, his two brothers, and 24 of their followers were hanged.
A new perspective on Gabriel is provided in
Douglas Egerton's book
Gabriel's Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800-1802. Although the book reflects a great deal of primary research from surviving contemporary documents, his conclusions remain controversial among historians of the period. One of the first points Egerton has clarified is that Gabriel was never known by the surname "Prosser." This is an assumption made in later periods, when slaves and ex-slaves commonly adopted their owner's family names. In fact, around 1800 he might have been referred to as "Prosser's Gabriel," but his common use name was simply
Gabriel.
Gabriel was a skilled
blacksmith who mostly "hired out" his time in Richmond foundries, a common practice during this period when the market for tobacco was depressed, soil depleted, and cotton not yet a major cash crop. Egerton concludes that Gabriel absorbed the viewpoint of his co-workers of European, African and mixed descent, who expected
Thomas Jefferson's Republicans to liberate them from domination by the wealthy merchants of the city.Thus, Gabriel did have two
white co-conspirators, at least one of whom was a French national. Documentary evidence as to who they were was sent straight to Governor Monroe and never seen in court. The internal dynamics of Jefferson's, and Monroe's party in the 1800 elections were more complex than they appeared to an industrial worker in Richmond. A large part of the Republicans' base were themselves owners of large plantations. Any sign of white Republicans supporting Gabriel's plan could have cost Jefferson the election.Gabriel did not order his followers to kill all whites
except Methodists,
Quakers and
Frenchmen; he rather instructed them to refrain from killing
any of those three categories. In fact, he planned to take Monroe hostage, to negotiate an end to slavery and then to "drink and dine with the merchants of the city" when freedom had been agreed to.
It is notable that Gabriel initially escaped on a ship owned by a former overseer, a recently converted Methodist who repeatedly ignored information as to his passenger's identity. Gabriel was turned in by a slave "hired out" to work on the ship, who hoped to obtain a sufficient reward to purchase his own freedom. However, he was paid only $50, not the $300 he expected.
This potential slave uprising was notable not because of its actual impact â€" the rebellion was quelled before it could begin â€" but because of the potential for mass chaos. No reliable numbers exist regarding slave and free black conspirators; most likely, the number of men actively involved numbered only several hundred. The rebellion was put down by state
militia and Gabriel was
hanged.Southern slave-owners were acutely aware of the
Haitian Revolution and became fearful of another slave rebellion. Gabriel had been able to plan the rebellion so well because of relatively lax rules of movement between plantations; as a result, many owners greatly restricted the slaves' rights of travel when not working. The fear of a slave revolt would persist until the abolition of slavery in the
1860s.
Prior to this rebellion, education of slaves, and training slaves in skilled trades, had not been restricted in Virginia. After the rebellion, and a second conspiracy organized among river boatmen in 1802, slave owners realized they must either begin a program of gradual emancipation, or reduce the slave population to a completely illiterate, unskilled condition useful only for common labor and field work. The latter course was adopted.
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7 ways that slaves in the South Resisted Slavery*
Gabriel's Rebellion
