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Gabriel's Plot to free slaves is halted by bad weather. Someone informs on them, causing leaders to be hung or sold.
The general scheme of Gabriel's plot to free slaves in Virginia was to badly disrupt and terrify the state of Virginia with their rebellion. He believed that the state's leading politicians and merchants would be so terrified that they would be more than glad to negotiate an end to slavery. It would be a case of either negotiate or else the bloody mayhem that was planned would continue. August 30, 1800 came and Gabriel and his followers were ready, but Mother Nature had a bit of a plot of her own. Late in the afternoon, a torrential thunderstorm struck. Both roads and bridges were washed out. It was impossible for the slaves to make their move. There was little that could be done, due to the storm, but disperse and wait for a better day. But before that better day arrived the rebelling slaves were informed upon. The leaders were apprehended, except for Gabriel. He remained at large until late September when he, too, was captured. Now, with the leaders either executed or sold away from the area, and with the local militias vigilantly patrolling, Gabriel's plot collapsed. By the end of the year calm had been restored but, although Gabriel's plot had failed, the spark of the idea of striking for freedom hadn't been extinguished. In 1801 and 1802 other plots such as Gabriel's sprung up in Virginia and in North Carolina. White Virginians had been so seized with terror, however, by the scale of Gabriel's plot and how close it came to fruition that legislative debates occurred in the early years of the new century over the possibility of gradually ending slavery in the state. Previous: Gabriel's Insurrection: A Slave's Plot for Freedom. Recommended Reading:Captain John Smith: In Russia Captain Smith was made a slave. Tituba, the Salem Slave: Telling Fortunes with Young Girls. SourcesEgerton, Douglas. Gabriel's Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802. University of North Carolina Press, 1993. Faragher, John Mack, General Editor. American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1998. Mullin, Gerald W. Flight and Rebellion: Slave Resistance in Eighteenth Century Virginia. Oxford University Press, 1972.
The copyright of the article Slave Revolt in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Slave Revolt in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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