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Encyclopedia > Gabriel Prosser
Part of a series of articles on...
Image:Slave revolt logo.jpg

1739 Stono Rebellion
1741 New York Insurrection
1805 Chatham Manor
1800 Gabriel Prosser (Suppressed)
1811 Charles Deslandes (Suppressed)
1815 George Boxley (Suppressed)
1822 Denmark Vesey (Suppressed)
1831 Nat Turner's rebellion
1839 Amistad
1856 Pottawatomie Massacre
1859 John Brown
A slave rebellion is an armed uprising by slaves. ... The Stono Rebellion (sometimes called Catos Conspiracy or Catos Rebellion) is one of the earliest known organized acts of rebellion against slavery in the Americas. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Chatham Manor was the 1771 Georgian style home of William Fitzhugh overlooking the Rappahannock River. ... Charles Deslondes led an unsuccessful slave revolt in parts of the Louisiana Territory on January 8, 1811. ... George Boxley was a white storekeeper living in Spotsylvania County, Virginia near the Orange County, Virginia line. ... Denmark Vesey (originally Telemaque, 1767? — July 2, 1822) was an white slave, and later a minister, who planned what would have been one of the largest slave rebellions in the United States had word of the plans not been leaked. ... Combatants Southern Slaves Southampton County Commanders Nat Turner Numerous Strength 50+ 15,000+ Casualties 200+ dead 57 dead Nat Turners slave rebellion was a slave rebellion that happened in Virginia in August 1831. ... Holding The “AFRICANS” are free, and are remanded to be released; Lt. ... The Pottawatomie massacre occurred during the night of May 24 to the morning of May 25, 1856. ... John Brown John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was the first white American abolitionist to advocate and practice insurrection as a means to the abolition of slavery. ...

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Gabriel (1776October 10, 1800), today commonly if incorrectly known as Gabriel Prosser, was a slave born in Henrico County, Virginia who planned a failed slave rebellion in the summer of 1800. The rebellion was suppressed and Gabriel was hanged together with other slaves. Year 1776 (MDCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ... October 10 is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years). ... // ON MAY 5 1853 MR.FADER HAD SEX WITH A MAN NAME MR WIEN THEN THEY HAD SON NAMEDMRS COTURE AND MR MANOOGIAN WENT INTO MRS HASKELLS OFFICE NAKED AND DANCED AROUND AND MASTERBATED ON HER CHEST AND SHE LICKED IT OFF THEN THEY HAD ORAL SEEX WITH NAPLOEAN OF... This poster depicting the horrific conditions on slave ships was influential in mobilizing public opinion against slavery in Britain and the United States. ... Henrico County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state of the United States. ... A slave rebellion is an armed uprising by slaves. ... Hanging is the suspension of a person by a ligature, usually a cord wrapped around the neck, causing death. ...

Contents

Life

Born on Brookfield as 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."


Gabriel's Rebellion

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, Mosby Sheppard. He in turn warned Virginia's Governor (from 1799 to 1802) James Monroe. He called out the state militia. Gabriel tried to escape downriver to Norfolk, but was spotted and betrayed by a fellow slave for the reward, although that slave did not get the full reward. Gabriel then was returned to Richmond for questioning, but he would not submit. Gabriel, his two brothers, and 24 of their followers were hanged. August 30 is the 242nd day of the year (243rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... // ON MAY 5 1853 MR.FADER HAD SEX WITH A MAN NAME MR WIEN THEN THEY HAD SON NAMEDMRS COTURE AND MR MANOOGIAN WENT INTO MRS HASKELLS OFFICE NAKED AND DANCED AROUND AND MASTERBATED ON HER CHEST AND SHE LICKED IT OFF THEN THEY HAD ORAL SEEX WITH NAPLOEAN OF... 1799 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... --69. ... James Monroe (April 28, 1758 – July 4, 1831) was the fifth President of the United States (1817-1825), and the fourth Virginian to hold the office. ... Lebanese Kataeb militia A Militia is an organization of citizens to provide defense, emergency or paramilitary service, or those engaged in such activity. ... Norfolk (IPA: //) is a low-lying county in East Anglia in the east of southern England. ...


Historiography

Historian Douglas Egerton offered a new perspective on Gabriel in his book Gabriel's Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800-1802. Although the book incorporates extensive primary research from surviving contemporary documents, his conclusions remain controversial among historians of the period. Egerton observes, for example, that Gabriel was never known by the surname "Prosser," portraying that as an after-the-fact assumption from a period when slaves and ex-slaves sometimes adopted their owner's family names. According to Egerton, in 1800 white authorities referred to him as "Prosser's Gabriel," but his common-use name was simply Gabriel. Primary research (also called field research) involves the collection of data that doesnt already exist. ...


Egerton found that 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 Federalist merchants of the city. A blacksmith A blacksmith at work A blacksmith at work A blacksmiths fire Hot metal work from a blacksmith A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from iron or steel by forging the metal; i. ... Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ...


Gabriel did apparently have two white co-conspirators, at least one of whom was identified as a French national. Documentary evidence of their identity or involvement was sent straight to Governor Monroe but 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 both white and black partisans in Richmond. A significant part of the Republicans' base were themselves owners of large plantations. Any sign that white radicals, and particularly Frenchmen, had supported Gabriel's plan could have cost Jefferson the election. This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

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Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Egerton also notes that 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. He even planned, Egerton asserts, 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. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... For school of ancient Greek medicine, see Methodism (history of medicine). ... Pendle Hill, a landmark in the history of the Society of Friends. ... // The French people speak French(French: les Français), etymologically derives from the word Franks (which means free), a Germanic tribe which overran Roman Gaul at the end times of the Roman Empire. ...


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.


Impact

This potential uprising was notable not because of its actual impact — the rebellion was quelled before it could begin — 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.


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. Combatants Haiti France Commanders Toussaint LOuverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines Charles Leclerc, vicomte de Rochambeau, Napoleon Bonaparte Strength Regular army: <55,000, Volunteers: <100,000 Regular army: 60,000, 86 warships and frigates Casualties Military deaths: unknown, Civilian deaths: <100,000 Military deaths: 57,000 (37,000 combat; 20,000...


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 in 1802 among enslaved boatmen along the Appomattox and Roanoke Rivers, slave owners in the Virginia Assembly banned the practice of hiring slaves away from their masters (1808) and required freed blacks to leave the state or face reenslavement (1806).


Sources

  • Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro Slave Revolts. New York: International Publishers, 1983 (1943).
  • Egerton, Douglas R. Gabriel's Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993).
  • Rodriguez, Junius P., ed. Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006.
  • Sidbury, James. Ploughshares into Swords: Race, Rebellion, and Identity in Gabriel's Virginia, 1730-1810. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Herbert Aptheker (July 31, 1915 - March 17, 2003) was an internationally known U.S. Marxist historian and a political activist. ...

See also

  • Nat Turner
  • History of slavery in the United States

Nat, remembered today as Nat Turner, (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an American slave whose failed slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, was the most remarkable instance of black resistance to enslavement in the antebellum southern United States. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

External links

  • PBS article

  Results from FactBites:
 
Africans in America/Part 3/Gabriel's Conspiracy (1618 words)
Gabriel was born in 1776, on Thomas Prosser's tobacco plantation in Henrico County, Virginia.
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.
Gabriel experienced several strong influences: the rhetoric of the American Revolution; the uprising in Saint Domingue, the radical words of white artisans who championed the working class; the success exhibited by free fls; his own hatred of the merchants who routinely cheated the slaves they hired; his desire to be free and to prosper.
  More results at FactBites »


 
 

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