He had lost two front teeth and his head was scarred. Unlike many slaves, he had been educated in his youth and became a blacksmith, which gave him access to life beyond the plantation. During the Antebellum South , skilled slaves were often hired out; some slaves also got Sunday off. They could earn some money of their own, after paying a portion to their masters. However, white merchants controlled 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 exploitive system was grounds for revolt among the slaves. In , Prosser and several other slaves plotted their own revolution, planning to marshal the forces of up to 10, Blacks, who would take Richmond in an armed revolution, kill every white, and save the French, the Methodists, the Quakers, and the poor.
The plan called for a three-pronged assault on the city on an August night; it was put down just as it got started.
Two slaves who lived on the Henrico plantation of Meadow Farm betrayed the plot to their owner, Mosby Sheppard. Sheppard immediately informed Governor Monroe, who called out the militia. Prosser and the other revolt leaders were probably influenced by the American Revolution and more recently the French and Haitian Revolutions with their rhetoric of freedom, equality and brotherhood. In the months prior to the revolt Prosser recruited hundreds of supporters and organized them into military units.
Although Virginia authorities never determined the extent of the revolt, they estimated that several thousand planned to participate including many who were to be armed with swords and pikes made from farm tools by slave blacksmiths. Prosser planned to initiate the insurrection on the night of August 30, However, earlier in the day two slaves who wanted to protect their masters betrayed the plot to Virginia authorities.
Governor James Monroe alerted the militia. Realizing their plan had been discovered, Prosser and many of his followers dispersed into the countryside. One white fear, typical in times of black rebellion, was that black men were out to get white women. 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. 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. Gabriel and Taylor were both arrested. Billy was rewarded, but not what he had expected. 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. 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.
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.
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