1. Gabriel’s Rebellion
Richmond, VA
1800

2. Background
• Gabriel was born in 1776, on Thomas Prosser's tobacco
plantation in Henrico County, Virginia. When he was about ten,
Gabriel and his brother Solomon began training as blacksmiths.
• Although almost nothing is known about Gabriel's parents, it is
likely that his father was a blacksmith, because skills were
typically passed from generation to generation in Virginia slave
families. As a child, Gabriel was also taught to read and write.

3. Physical Aspects
• Gabriel was unusually intelligent, and unusually large; by the age of 20 he
was six feet, two or three inches tall, and was enormously strong from his
years of smithing.
• Even older slaves saw him as a leader.

4. Situation
• Prosser died in 1798, and his son Thomas Henry Prosser, at the age of 22, became
the new master of the Brookfield Plantation. Thomas Henry was a cruel and
economically ambitious master, and it is likely that he pushed his slaves too hard.
• He also hired out some of his skilled slaves, including Gabriel and Solomon, a
practice that was common in Virginia at the time -- and one that allowed slaves
more freedom than some Virginians were comfortable with.
• Although the state legislature made laws attempting to curtail hiring out, they were
not enforced, largely because local merchants and artisans relied heavily on the
cheap labor that they could get from hiring slaves, as opposed to white tradesmen.

5. Access
• Thomas Henry allowed Gabriel to hire
himself out to masters in and around
Richmond, giving him access to a certain
amount of freedom, as well as money.
• Gabriel also met fellow hired slaves, free
blacks, and white laborers, with whom he
shared work and leisure time.

6. Melting Pot
• Many free blacks, though they faced overwhelming discrimination,
managed to prosper as small business owners in the Richmond
economy.
• Even more threatening to city authorities were the bonds that were
formed among slaves, free blacks and working class whites, who
worked and socialized together, especially in a city in which whites, and
especially wealthy whites, were in the minority.
• Laws were passed curtailing socializing between slaves and free blacks,
and interracial grog shops were raided.

7. Air of Independence
• Gabriel experienced several strong influences: the rhetoric of the American
Revolution; the uprising in Saint Dominque (Haiti), the radical words of
white artisans who championed the working class; the success exhibited by
free blacks; his own hatred of the merchants who routinely cheated the
slaves they hired; his desire to be free and to prosper.
• He was moving toward a revolutionary stance that Solomon described in his
court confession: "My brother Gabriel was the person who influenced me to
join him and others in order that (as he said) we might conquer the white
people and possess ourselves of their property."

8. Lessons Learned
• In September of 1799, Gabriel, Solomon, and a fellow slave named Jupiter stole a
pig. When caught by white overseer Absalom Johnson, Gabriel wrestled him to the
ground and bit off most of his ear. In court, he was found guilty of maiming a
white man, a capital offense, but Gabriel escaped execution through a loophole
called "benefit of clergy," that allowed him to choose public branding over
execution, if he could recite a verse from the Bible.
• Gabriel recited his verse, and then was branded in his left hand in open court. The
branding, as well as the month he spent in jail, was the last in a long chain of
offenses that pushed him toward open rebellion.

9. Allies
• Inspired by Saint Dominque (Haiti) and spurred on by working-class talk of a truly
egalitarian society, Gabriel decided it was time to act. He believed that if the slaves
rose and fought for their rights, the poor white people would join them. His plan
involved seizing Capitol Square in Richmond and taking Governor James Monroe as
a hostage, in order to bargain with city authorities.
• According to later testimony, one of the conspirators also "was to go to the nation
of Indians called Catawbas to persuade them to join the negroes to fight the white
people." It was also believed that a French "army was landed at South Key, which
they hoped would assist them." Their banner would bear the motto "death or
Liberty," the battle cry of Saint Dominque.

10. Recruitment
• Gabriel conveyed his plan to Solomon and Ben, another of Prosser's slaves, and the
men began recruiting soldiers. They were later joined by other recruiters.
• The rebels did not include women in their army. While the majority of the men were
slaves, the conspirators also drew free blacks and a few white workers to their cause,
especially as they began recruiting in Richmond. Two Frenchmen and militant
abolitionists, Charles Quersey and Alexander Beddenhurst, joined the ranks as leaders.
• A slave recruit named King, when told of the plot, said, "I was never so glad to hear
anything in my life. I am ready to join them at any moment. I could slay the white
people like sheep."

11. Planning
• The conspirators continued recruiting from Richmond and other Virginia
towns, including Petersburg, Norfolk and Albemarle, and from the counties
of Caroline and Louisa.
• After some difficulty, they were also successful in recruiting slaves from the
Henrico County countryside. In this way they were preparing for the most
far-reaching slave revolt ever planned in U.S. history. They also amassed
weapons and began hammering swords out of scythes and molding bullets.

12. “Death or Liberty”
• By August of 1800, Gabriel's army was ready. Their
plan, necessarily more elaborate now, included the taking
of Norfolk and Petersburg by the men living there.
• Gabriel announced that they would move on the night
of Saturday, August 30. As the lieutenants delivered
news of the date to the outlying areas, a rumor of
insurrection surfaced among Richmond whites, who
reported it to Governor Monroe, who ignored it.

13. Problems
• On August 30, a torrential rain began, described by James
Callender, a person in jail for violating the sedition law, as "the
most terrible thunder Storm... that I ever witnessed in this State."
• A handful of men gathered at the appointed meeting spot, but it
soon became clear that the quickly rising water would make key
roads and bridges impassable.

14. Betrayal
• The conspirators decided to postpone until Sunday evening, August 31.
But before they had a chance to carry out their plan, slaves in two
different locations cracked under the pressure and told their masters.
• Soon Governor Monroe was alerted, and white patrols, later joined by
the state militia, began roaming the countryside searching for rebels.
Gabriel and Jack Ditcher disappeared. Others eluded capture for several
days, but by September 9, almost 30 slaves were in jail awaiting trial in
the court of "Oyer and Terminer," a special court in which slaves were
tried without benefit of jury.

15. On the Run
• When the trials began on September 11, Gabriel
and Ditcher were still at large, and white
authorities had no idea of how extensive the
insurrection had been.
• White Virginians were terrified at the thought of
how close the danger had come. One white fear,
typical in times of black rebellion, was that black
men were out to get white women.

16. Interrogations
• One strategy that the white authorities used was to offer a full pardon to a handful
of slaves who were willing to give testimony against the other conspirators. Gervas
Storrs and Joseph Seldon, two of the court magistrates, found two key witnesses in
this way: Ben, one of Prosser's slaves, and Ben Woolfolk.
• Prosser's Ben came forward first, and his testimony sent a number of slaves from
his area to the gallows, including Gabriel's brothers Solomon and Martin. But
Prosser's Ben did not have enough contact with slaves from the outlying areas, and
so the court looked to Ben Woolfolk to give the damning evidence. Other slaves
provided further testimony.

17. “Holy Insurrection"
• On September 14, Gabriel swam to a schooner called Mary on the James River. He
asked to see the captain, a white man named Richardson Taylor. Two black men on
board, Taylor's former slave Isham and a slave named Billy, identified Gabriel as the
leader of the plot.
• Though a former overseer, Taylor had apparently had a change of heart about
slavery. He attempted to take Gabriel to freedom. However, when the ship docked
in Norfolk, Billy alerted white authorities to Gabriel's presence on board, no doubt
thinking of the $300 reward being offered for Gabriel's capture. Gabriel and Taylor
were both arrested. Billy was rewarded, but not what he had expected. He received
$50, far below what he needed to purchase his freedom.

18. Execution
• On October 6, Gabriel was put on trial. Several witnesses came forward, but
Gabriel himself refused to make a statement. He was sentenced to be
executed the next day, but asked that his sentence not be carried out until
October 10, so that he could be executed along with six other slaves who
were to hang on that day.
• The court agreed, but on October 10 they hanged the slaves in three
different locations; Gabriel was hanged alone on the town gallows.

19. Aftermath
• In all, the trials lasted almost two months, and 26
slaves were executed by hanging; one more died by
hanging while in custody. At least 65 slaves were
tried; of those not hanged, some were transported to
other states, some were found not guilty, and a few
were pardoned.
• By law, slaveholders had to be reimbursed by the state
for lost property, so in cases where slaves were
executed or transported, their masters were
reimbursed for their total worth declared by the
court. Virginia paid over $8900 to slaveholders for
the executed slaves.

20. Newspaper Accounts
The public mind has been much involved in dangerous apprehensions,
concerning an insurrection of the negroes in several of the adjacent counties.
Such a thing has been in agitation among the blacks, principally instigated by an
ambitious and insidious fellow, a slave, by the name of GABRIEL, the property
of Mr. Thomas Prosser, of the county of Henrico. This villain, assuming to
himself the appellation of General, through his artfulness, has caused some
disturbance, having induced many poor, ignorant, and unfortunate creatures to
share in his nefarious and horrid design (Columbian Mirror, September
16,1800).

21. Trials
• Although most of the suspects were tried in Richmond, blacks captured in other counties
were tried in those locations. Many of them shared the same fates as the Richmond slaves.
However, in Hanover County, two slaves escaped with the help of blacks outside the prison
and were never recovered.
• In Norfolk County, the magistrates questioned slaves and working-class whites alike, trying
to find witnesses. But no one, including the accused slaves, would come forward with
evidence, and the slaves were released.
• In Petersburg, four free blacks were arrested, but they too were released after the frustrated
authorities could find no viable witnesses. There were slaves willing to give condemning
evidence, but the testimony of slaves against free people was inadmissible in Virginia courts.

22. Columbian Mirror, Saturday, 4
October, 1800.

23. President Jefferson’s Letter to
Governor Monroe
• On September 15, 1800, after ten of the rebels convicted of taking part in Gabriel's Conspiracy had been executed,
Governor James Monroe wrote a letter to Vice President and fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson. In it, he asked for
Jefferson's advice: "When to arrest the hand of the Executioner is a question of great importance."
• Five days later Jefferson replied: "[T]here is a strong sentiment that there has been hanging enough. The other states
& the world at large will forever condemn us if we indulge in a principle of revenge, or go one step beyond absolute
necessity." While cautioning that he was "unwilling to be quoted in the case," Jefferson suggested that the men in
question be imprisoned in a "fort & garrison" to allow the legislature time to "pass a law for their exportation, the
proper measure on this & all similar occasions[.]"
• With twenty-five slaves by now executed, Governor Monroe looked for an alternative solution, eventually deciding
to transport some of the condemned rebels out of state by selling them to slave traders. Many of them, including
Jack Ditcher, one of the leaders, were eventually sold in Spanish New Orleans.

24. Gov. 'pardons' Gabriel's Rebellion slave
According to the USA Today (2007), in 2007 Virginia Governor Tim Kaine
pardons Gabriel Prosser. Kaine said “Gabriel's cause -- the end of slavery and
the furtherance of equality of all people -- has prevailed in the light of history,"
Kaine wrote to the Virginia chapter of the NAACP, which sought the pardon.
"It is important to acknowledge that history favorably regards Gabriel's cause
while consigning legions who sought to keep him and others in chains to be
forgotten (USA Today, 2007)”.

25. Confession of Solomon
• Solomon, Gabriel's brother and a leader in the unsuccessful rebellion of 1800, was one of
nearly 30 slaves captured near Brookfield Plantation and imprisoned in Richmond in the
week following discovery of the conspiracy.
• With Gabriel and other leaders still at large, Solomon was the first to be tried. On
September 11, 1800, he was convicted on the basis of testimony offered by Pharoah and by
Ben, a young Prosser slave who become involved early in the conspiracy.
• In his confession, recorded by court magistrates Gervas Storrs and Joseph Seldon, Solomon
described the plan "conquer the white people and possess ourselves of their property."
Solomon's testimony gave indication of how ambitious the plan was: "Gabriel informed me,
in case of success, that they intended to subdue the whole of the country where slavery was
permitted, but no further.“ Solomon was found guilty of conspiracy and insurrection and
sentenced to be hanged the following morning.

26. Rebel's statement from Gabriel's Conspiracy
• On September 25, 1804, several years after the trials and executions of Gabriel and
his fellow conspirators, Robert Sutcliff, a visitor to Virginia, noted the lingering
specter of the insurrection.
• Sutcliff recorded in his journal a story conveyed to him by a local lawyer. In the
midst of his trial, an unnamed conspirator was said to have told his accusers, "I
have nothing more to than what General Washington would have had to offer, had
he been taken by the British and put to trial by them."
• Sutcliff's journal, "Travels in Some Parts of North America, in the Years 1804,
1805, & 1806" was published in Philadelphia in 1812.

27. Reference:
Columbian Mirror. (1800). Tuesday September 16.
http://www.executedtoday.com/2010/10/10/1800-gabriel-prosser-rebellion-virginia/
Gabriel Prosser. (1998). In Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale.
Nicholls, M. L. (2012). "Holy insurrection": spinning the news of Gabriel's
conspiracy. Journal of Southern History, 78(1), 37+.
PBS, 2014. Gabriel’s conspiracy. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1576.html
USA Today, (2007). Gov pardons Gabriel‘s rebellion slave.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-31-569227313_x.htm