Gabriel’s Insurrection

A Slave’s Plot for Freedom

Nov 13, 2006 Mary Trotter Kion

Gabriel, a Virginia slave, begins to recruit other slaves for a revolt.

Gabriel was an African-American slave. He was born on the Virginia plantation of Thomas Prosser in 1776. He was born amidst one war for freedom, white freedom, but twenty-four years later he would attempt to wage his own war for freedom. This time the war would be for Black freedom.

Gabriel grew up in a time of white Americans stretching their limbs for liberty and spreading their wings for freedom. He also grew up in a time when Blacks' were excluded from these first stirrings of liberty, freedom, all laced together with equality.

By his late teens, although still a slave. Gabriel had acquired a moderate amount of freedom for himself by becoming a skilled blacksmith. Because of this ability he had the privilege of travelling somewhat freely in Richmond and the surrounding countryside, selling his blacksmith labor to various plantation owners and shopkeepers. He was paid for his labors, however he was required to return most of what he earned to his owner.

Being able to move about town and countryside freely, earning a meager amount for himself, also enabled him to meet and talk to numerous other slaves. This was an advantage he would soon find useful for a secret plan he was forming that, he hoped, would become fruitful on August 30, 1800.

Gabriel began a plot that would create a strong strike against slavery. He began recruiting slaves, such as himself, that also had the privilege of moving freely about in their labors. These slaves would stand the best chance of spreading the word of what Gabriel was planning. This worked so well that word of his plot spread as far south as Norfolk, and as far west as Charlottesville.

As summer arrived Gabriel had collected a considerable core of associates, including his two brothers. Also numbered in this group were two artisans, Sam Byrd and Ben Woolfolk.

In the South of the time, summer was the season for religious revivals, and these religious gatherings were always heavily attended by slaves. What better occasion could there be to spread the word of Gabriel's plot to make a strike for freedom? This was especially true if a good ole finger-lickin' barbecue was held after the praying and singing were done. Somewhere between singing praises to the Lord and eating cornpone and what ever there was for barbecuing, Gabriel and his men, by late August, had recruited several hundred slaves.

Gabriel's Insurrection: A Slave's Plot for Freedom, continues with Slave Revolt: Bloody Mayhem Planned.

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