Gabriel Prosser

Gabriel Prosser

In 1776, the year of America's independence as a country, a slave child named Gabriel was born to the family owned by Thomas Henry Prosser of the Brookfield Plantation in Henrico County.

As an adult, Gabriel Prosser would herald the cause of independence for himself and for all slaves. It was a cause for which he was willing to take the most extreme measures. Regarded as a "fellow of courage and intellect above his rank and life" by both blacks and whites, Gabriel was a commanding figure. Dark-skinned, he stood 6 feet, 2 or 3 inches tall.He had lost two front teech and his head was scarred.

Unlike the vast majority of slaves, Gabriel had been educated in his youth. He became a blacksmith, a skill that gave him access to life beyond the plantation.

Following the American Revolution, slave laws were relaxed and skilled slaves were often hired out. Many slaves also got half of Saturday and all of Sunday off. The artisans could use that time to earn some money of their own -- after paying a percentage to their masters.

But the market was no more free than the slaves themselves.

White merchants controlled the the flow of raw goods into and out of the city, and they could pressure the skilled slaves to lower their prices by simply choking off the stream of materials. The masters, meanwhile, still got their share off the top.

This repressive system was fertile ground for the idea of revolt among the slaves. The firebrands among them were emboldened by accounts of a bloody slave uprising in Haiti in 1791. In 1800, Gabriel and several other slaves plotted their own revolution.

It was to be an apocalypse for the slave masters. Gabriel and his co-conspirators planned to marshall the forces of up to 10,000 blacks, who would take Richmond in an armed insurrection and kill every white, save the French, the Methodists, the Quakers and the poor.

The plan called for a three-pronged assault on the city on the night of Aug. 30. Governor James Monroe would be captured and held while other slaves, poor whites and indians joined the fighters.

But Gabriel's Insurrection was put down just as it got started.

Two slaves who lived on the Henrico plantion of Meadow Farm betrayed the plot to the plantation's owner, Mosby Sheppard. Sheppard immediately informed the governor, who called out the militia. On August 30 torrential rains washed away roads and bridges, limiting the movement of the rebellious slaves. Abouit 30 slaves were captured and executed.

Gabriel, however, eluded the militia and escaped down the Chickahominy River. Monroe put a $300 reward on his head, and on Sept. 24, Gabriel was captured aboard a ship in Norfolk. On Oct. 10, 1800 at Richmond's gallows at 15th and Broad streets, Gabriel Prosser was hanged. He was 24 years old.

Gabriel's bid for freedom only tigthtened the grip of slavery. In the aftermath of the insurrection, slave laws were toughened not only in Virginia but also in other states, north and south.

In Virginia, abolition societies were driven underground. Travel was restricted. Free blacks who didn't leave the state within six months risked re-enslavement.

For slaves, the dream of freedom did not die, but the reality was still more than half a century away.

THE TIMES OF GABRIEL PROSSER

1776 -- Prosser born.

1789 -- Benjamin Bannecker lays out Washington D.C. with L'Enfant

1791 -- Haitian slave uprising.

1799 -- New York state abolishes slavery.

1800 -- Prosser hanged.

SOURCES: Gabriel's Rebellion, The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802 by Douglas R. Egerton; Many Thousand Gone by Virginia Hamilton; Meadow Farm Museum, Henrico County; Virginia Historical Society

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