Prosser's Gabriel

Do you see that picture? That's Gabriel. In 1800 he organized a slave revolt near Richmond, Virginia. Since January, I've been researching him and his revolt and after four months of work, I've finally finished my paper on him. I'm proud of it and I'm going to post it here. It's long (14 pages) but if you read it, you might learn something.

Gabriel and the Richmond Conspiracy

In 1776, a child named Gabriel was born into slavery at Brookfield Plantation in Henrico County, Virginia. In 1791, a rebellion of the slaves broke out in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. By the year 1800, Gabriel was a grown man leased to work at other plantations in and around Henrico County. This sort of semi-freedom allowed Gabriel to interact with others in the area and allowed him to hear of the events in Saint-Domingue nine years before. Inspired by the events of Saint-Domingue and the harsh realities of the enslaved life, Gabriel raised an army of other slaves and planned a rebellion. If he was successful, he would change American history. If he failed, he would hang.

Four major factors played a role in Gabriel’s Conspiracy; the Haitian Revolution, the cruelty of life as a slave, the contentious election of 1800, and the desire for a society that was truly free for all, regardless of race or social status. These four factors are what inspired Gabriel to rise up against life as a slave and attempt to better the lives of all enslaved people in Virginia and the rest of the United States.

Nine years before Gabriel was to take Richmond, slaves on the French colony of Saint-Domingue decided to rise up in revolt against their masters. By 1789, 40,000 Africans a year were being brought to Saint-Domingue to work as slaves in the sugar cane fields. The total foreign trade of France that year was seventeen million pounds. Eleven million pounds of that trade came from Saint-Domingue.[1] There were close to 500,000 African slaves in Saint-Domingue in the year 1789, which was the year that the French Revolution began. These half million men and women toiled in the harsh conditions of the sugar cane fields and were the victims of violence and oppression. All the while, their hard work built massive amounts of wealth for their masters. An attempt at rebellion was made in 1790 led by a gens de couleur named Vincent Ogé, but it was crushed and he was executed. Ogé’s death made him a martyr and hinted at the idea of a future insurrection. To avoid this possibility, the French legislature decided in 1791 to grant limited rights to the affranchis, free blacks and mulattoes on the island, but the plantation owners ignored the change. Fighting broke out on the island between the affranchis and the whites and the slaves began to rebel.[2] Hoping to end the fighting, the French government granted citizenship to all affranchis, hoping that they would assist the whites in defeating the slaves, but the white colonists again ignored the desires of the French legislature and the fighting continued.

A tropical storm was upon Saint-Domingue on August of 1791. During the storm a group of slaves carrying torches met in an opening amongst the trees on the mountain Morne Rouge. There they chanted voodoo incantations and suckled the blood of a stuck pig. As final instructions were given, the slaves began their uprising. The gangs traveled from plantation to plantation, murdered the masters, and burned the plantations to the ground. There was some hope for a return to peace in the Northern District of the island, but Nathaniel Cutting wrote that the idea of tranquility in the Northern District “has been recently obscured by unexpected depredations of the Insurgents. For the past fortnight “those remorseless Savages” have amused themselves by burning the ripe cane fields in that area.” After a while the rebels began to spare the men, women and children of the plantations. Whites did not take the rebellion seriously. As the violence continued to grow, however, they allied with the affranchis against the rebelling slaves. By January 1792, the rebels had destroyed about sixty sugar plantations and two-hundred twenty coffee plantations.[3] The insurrection was at first about 100,000 slaves in broken up into large groups, led by Jean-François and Bissou. They were joined a month later by Toussaint L’Ouverture.

In February 1793, France went to war with England and Spain. Spain controlled the other half of the island on which Saint-Domingue was located and helped the slaves against the French colonists. Now at war with France, they offered the rebels a formal alliance in exchange for loyalty to the Spanish. In 1793, French commissioner Leger-Felicité Sonthonax abolished slavery in Saint-Domingue as a last ditch effort of gaining support, but it was too late. Toussaint and his band of soldiers fought with the Spanish and had won control of the North Province of Saint-Domingue for the Spanish.

By June of 1794, over two-thirds of the former French colonies in the West Indies were under British control, including Saint-Domingue. On 4 February 1794, the French legislature confirmed Sonthonax’s decree abolishing slavery and black support was now with the French. By 1799, the Spanish and the French had been expelled from Saint-Domingue. Toussaint was named Commander-in-Chief of Saint-Domingue with white officers under him. As soon as the British were gone, though, the French began to plot against him. A rebellion against him broke out but Toussaint was victorious and made himself First Consul for Life. After the situation in France had stabilized, Napoleon wanted to restore slavery. He sent an expedition of nearly 60,000 men to Saint-Domingue and Toussaint was captured and died in a prison in France. One of Toussaint’s lieutenants, Jean Jacques Dessalines, had to lead a second fight for independence, this time with the assistance of the affranchis. Both sides were ruthless in their fighting but by 1804, Dessalines was victorious and Saint-Domingue was an independent state.[4]

After the fighting had quelled in Saint-Domingue, the attitudes of whites toward blacks had changed. After the new regime had taken control of the island, most whites on the island had accepted the changes. The men socialized with the ex-slaves and the women pursued the black generals.[5] The blacks that were still laborers, however, were still looked down upon by the rest of the island’s society. When the expedition of Napoleon’s brother-in-law Charles Victor Leclerc arrived, the whites aligned themselves behind him. Once they realized that the Leclerc expedition was doomed to fail, they realigned themselves with the island’s black leaders. Dessalines declared the island’s independence and promised the whites their property in exchange for their allegiance. As a final break from France, Saint-Domingue was given its old Carib name, Haiti.[6]

The land holding, slave owning whites of the United States saw the events in Saint-Domingue as a cause for concern. They began to monitor every movement of the enslaved population and enacted laws that severely restricted their movements and few freedoms. Virginia governor James Monroe was familiar with the situation and said that “the occurrences in St. Domingo…doubtless did excite some sensation among our Slaves.”[7] Thomas Jefferson declared in 1787 “a little rebellion now and then a good thing.” His tone changed after the successful revolt in Saint-Domingue. He was now determined to prevent the arrival of information of the events of Saint-Domingue from reaching the United States. This would not be an easy task though, as Saint-Domingue was the States’ second largest trading partner, behind Great Britain. Saint-Domingue imported the majority of their goods from the United States and brought traders from the island into American ports, especially southern ports. Jefferson insisted that every crate, crewman, and missionary from the island were a threat to Virginia and the United States. [8]

Gabriel was born in 1776 into a life of slavery. He spent his life on the plantation of Thomas Prosser, Brookfield, six miles north of Richmond, Virginia. The youngest of three sons, he was trained as a blacksmith and was hired out to work other plantations in the Henrico County area. This semi-freedom allowed him interaction with other slaves and whites around the area. As refugees from Saint-Domingue fled the island, many of them came to the United States. To prevent the slaves that they brought with them from relaying the stories to slaves in the States, many states passed laws that forbade the entry of slaves from Saint-Domingue into the United States. Virginia, however, was not one of these states. The slaves in Virginia mixed and mingled with the slaves from Saint-Domingue and they told them the stories of the slaves rising against their white masters and fighting for their freedom. The interaction familiarized Gabriel with the rhetoric and revolution of the period. It is noted in the book Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802 that “Saint-Domingue served as an inspiration to Gabriel and completed his development…The distant figure of Toussaint…seemed to clarify the domestic situation and told him that if he dared, success might be within his reach.”[9]

Though he possessed a trade and was allowed to leave Brookfield to work at other plantations, he was not immune to the punishments that a slave received for violating white laws. Gabriel’s master, Thomas Prosser, was believed to have been a kind master and implemented only lax discipline towards his slaves. This changed on 7 October 1798 when Thomas Prosser died in his home.[10] Thomas Henry Prosser, Thomas Prosser’s son, inherited Brookfield and the slaves that came with it. Thomas Henry Prosser was well known around Richmond as a man to watch, but he was not widely admired. It was rumored that he was very cruel to his slaves and pushed them to produce more.[11] It was his desire for financial advancement that caused him to work them even harder and to loan his surplus slaves to other plantations.

In September of 1799, Gabriel made a move towards outright rebellion. Slaves did not regard stealing from a master as theft. Taking from an owner was seen as a sort of repayment for work performed. It was on this September night that Gabriel, along with his brother Solomon, and a slave named Jupiter from the plantation of Nathaniel Wilkinson attempted to steal a pig from the pen of former overseer Absalom Johnson. The men were caught and Johnson began to berate the three. Rather than fleeing, the men stayed. As he was yelling at them, Gabriel lunged at Johnson’s legs and the two men fell to the ground fighting. As Johnson was screaming and yelling, Solomon and Jupiter danced about encouraging Gabriel. Gabriel bit off a part of Johnson’s left ear.[12] Though pig stealing was considered a minor crime, attacking a white man carried the death penalty. The three men were brought separately before a segregated tribunal known as courts of oyer and terminer. Jupiter was charged with “Hogstealing” and sentenced to thirty-nine lashes at the public whipping post. Solomon was not accused of Hogstealing, but Johnson brought a complaint against him for threatening him during the fracas. Johnson’s complaint was dismissed and Solomon was a discharged from the court. Gabriel was finally brought to trial on 17 October and was charged with maiming Absalom Johnson. He was found guilty but managed to escape death by hanging through a loophole that gave him the “benefit of clergy.” If Gabriel could recite a Bible verse, his life would be spared and he would only receive lashes, be branded and released. However, if he was to be convicted again, the brand would not allow him to live a second time. Gabriel was imprisoned in the Henrico County Jailhouse until the date of his punishment but was free to go afterwards.[13] Rather than learning his lesson, Gabriel left the Henrico County Jailhouse with his desire to revolt still intact.

1800 was an election year, and the campaigns in Virginia were heated. Gabriel spent many of his days working in the city of Richmond and was able to notice that the politicians of the city were strictly divided along party lines. In 1798, the American people were split over a dispute with France. The Federalists were calling for war. The Republicans, including Vice President Thomas Jefferson, were in a state of shock and panic. The Federalist majority in Congress passed a series of laws in 1798 to eliminate political enemies, namely the Republican Party. The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed and made criticizing the President and Congress a crime. The people of Virginia were fed up and the legislature voted for secession. It was the threat of a civil war when Gabriel began to believe that if a slave revolt would ever be successful, it was now. Gabriel was hoping to throw his support behind whichever group would come out on top, whichever group would benefit the slaves the most.[14] It should be noted that during the rebellion in Saint-Domingue, the slaves there exploited the divisions in the French hierarchy to create their rebellion.[15]

By 1800, Gabriel was ready to rebel. The political climate made it an ideal time and those on the bottom of the societal ladder were drawn together. Richmond was a predominantly black city and the home of countless enslaved people that Gabriel hoped would be willing to join him. His plan was vague, but it was emerging. Gabriel expected the slaves to form an urban mob and take to the streets. He hoped that the violence from the fall election would gain his cause some allies and that the poor whites of the city would join them to spark a class war. Gabriel insisted that Quakers, Methodists, and Frenchmen were to be spared, as well as poor whites with no slaves. In mid-April of 1800, Governor James Monroe informed Vice President Jefferson of rumors of a “negro insurrection,” but the rumors quickly died and were forgotten.[16]

Gabriel had decided that he, his wife, and his brothers would no longer be slaves. They would have their freedom or they would die. He informed his brother Solomon and another of Prosser’s slaves, Ben, of his plan. They were to gather at either “Prosser’s blacksmith’s shop or in the woods” or the Brook Bridge. They would march to Richmond, building an army 1000 strong by the time they reached the city. Along the way, Gabriel planned to kill Thomas Henry Prosser and Absalom Johnson for their cruelties. As the group neared Richmond, they would split into three groups. The ones armed with cutlasses, knives, pikes, and muskets would take Capitol Square and seize the guns and munitions stored there. They would then take Governor Monroe hostage and force him to consider the slaves’ demands. The other groups would set fire to the warehouse district as the rebels in Saint-Domingue had done to the plantations there, hold Mayo’s Bridge, and fortify the city. While they awaited other slaves from other Virginia towns to join them, the rebels would raid the treasury and distribute the money between the soldiers. The plan was for enough citizens of Richmond to lose their lives to force the leaders to grant the rebels their demands. Gabriel planned to drink and dine in the city with the white merchants after he was victorious.[17] This desire to mingle with whites after the rebellion shows that Gabriel did not want to create an all-black nation as happened in Saint-Domingue, but instead wanted to be viewed as equal among whites.

Gabriel set out building his inner circle of planners. First, it was Solomon and Ben. They began to inform other slaves that they felt they could trust mainly other slaves with an acquired skill. Jupiter, Sam Byrd, Jr., and Jack Ditcher all soon agreed. Not long after George Smith and William Burton’s Isham had also agreed.[18] Sundays were a day off for the slaves and Gabriel and his inner circle spent those days recruiting soldiers for the fight and familiarizing themselves with the locations of weapons stockpiles in Richmond. Slaves with access to guns were sought out, as were those that could acquire other weapons.[19] As the number of enslaved recruits grew, Gabriel decided that it was time to begin recruiting in Richmond. Though he spoke with the slaves in the tobacco houses, he also spoke with unskilled white laborers and free black men. Gabriel’s speaking of a redistribution of the wealth of society and of radically restructuring society won him many more recruits. Gabriel wanted all of Virginian society to be viewed as equal. By speaking of a redistribution of wealth and societal restructuring, Gabriel was able to gain a wider base of support for his cause.

30 August was to be the night that the plan was put into action. The Brookfield slaves, after killing Thomas Henry Prosser and Absalom Johnson, would meet with slaves recruited from Henrico, Hanover, and Caroline Counties at the Brook Bridge. Gabriel and one hundred more would travel to Gregory’s Tavern, take the arms stored there and move on to Richmond under the cover of night. The group would split as they approached the town. Fifty of them would set fire to the warehouses, alerting the other parts of town. A second group would storm the penitentiary, where Governor Monroe had recently had gunpowder stored. The last group, led by Gabriel himself, was to head to the capitol building and hand out guns to the city slaves that joined them. Then they would await word that Norfolk and Petersburg had been taken.[20] In the days before 30 August, Gabriel and his men distribute swords to those who were to fight and estimated that there were 500 to 600 men. Saturday, 30 August finally arrived and they waited for night to fall. As they waited, the sky grew dark.

As the rain fell, the creeks began to rise and the wooden bridges washed away. Gabriel tried to get the word out as fast as he could that they were to meet at Prosser’s tobacco house the following night. One of Gabriel’s recruits, Mosby Sheppard’s Pharoah, began to reconsider his commitment. Pharoah consulted with another of the Sheppard slaves, Tom. Tom was never involved in the plot and suggested that they see Mosby Sheppard, the owner of Meadow Farm plantation that neighbored Brookfield.

Mosby Sheppard was up late in his tiny office when Pharoah and Tom visited him. They told him that the slaves were preparing “to rise,” and that Thomas Henry Prosser, Absalom Johnson, and William Mosby were to die first. Sheppard asked when it was to take place and they informed him it was that night. He then asked who the leader was. After hesitating, one of them finally said “Prosser’s Gabriel.”[21] Sheppard hurried to the plantation of William Mosby and warned him of the plan. They then raced across Henrico County warning other plantation owners. While they were out, they saw no slaves and William Mosby cursed Sheppard’s fears. As William Mosby was falling asleep, one of his house servants entered his room and asked if he knew of the plot. When he confirmed that he did, she confided him that they were to try again on Sunday night.[22]

Early that Sunday, Governor Monroe was warned of the plot and remembering earlier hints of an insurrection, decided to take no chances. He was determined to avoid having a public scare and intended to keep it a secret for as long as possible. Monroe has the munitions from the capital removed and stored in the penitentiary and appointed three aides-de-camp in anticipation of a fight.[23] To aide in the capture of Gabriel, Monroe placed a bounty of three-hundred dollars on his head.[24]

Gabriel was working to restore order and was waiting to hear from those in Caroline or Richmond. Ben found Gabriel with Ditcher and Solomon and none of them had heard the white patrols the previous night. Ben traveled to the plantation of Joseph Mosby in search of Thomas Goode’s Michael to inform him that the plan was on that night. Before he could make it any further, an unknown slave informed him that the plan had been blown and patrols were detaining blacks along the brook.

By the end of 1 September, six slaves were captured and thrown in the Richmond jail. Gabriel and Ditcher had managed to escape. The slaves that they had recruited, aware of what had happened, were preparing to escape. Frightened whites continued searching for those involved in the plot and Governor Monroe had the Virginia militia ready to fight. There were few urban whites that doubted the success of the insurrection. James Thomas Callendar wrote to Vice President Jefferson that “They could have hardly failed of success; for after all, we could only muster four or five hundred men of whom not more than 30 of them had Muskets.”[25]

As more and more of the conspirators were captured, Gabriel fled. Four miles from Richmond, he hid along the banks of the James River. A ship called Mary was stuck on a sandbar. On 14 September Gabriel dove into the water and swam towards the ship. When he was pulled on board, he asked to see the captain, Richardson Taylor. He told Taylor that he was a freeman heading for Norfolk. When asked for his papers, Gabriel could not provide any. A slave for hire named Billy was onboard when Gabriel came aboard and told Taylor that Gabriel was the slave that was being pursued. Gabriel insisted that his real name was Daniel, but Gabriel was a nickname of his. Taylor was a former overseer and knew of the consequences for carry a fugitive slave or a freeman without papers on his ship. However, Taylor converted to the Methodist faith, a Christian denomination that denounced slavery. In the end Taylor kept quiet about Gabriel being aboard his ship. On 23 September, the Mary put in at the wharves along Water Street in Norfolk. When Billy was walking along Water Street, he found an apprentice slave and told him that Gabriel was on the boat. The boy ran to the homes of the constables Obediah Gunn and Robert Wilson. The two constables reached the Mary almost simultaneously and arrested Gabriel. Taylor was also arrested on “suspicion of intentionally assisting and aiding in Gabriel’s escape.” On the afternoon of 24 September Gabriel was placed on a ship bound for Richmond and kept in solitary confinement.

Gabriel was held in isolation at the Richmond penitentiary until 6 October, when his trial was to begin. At his trial, Gabriel was charged with the crime of “Conspiracy and insurrection.” He was found guilty and sentenced to hang the next morning. Gabriel requested that his execution be pushed back to 10 October so that he could hang with two of his accomplices and his brothers. On the morning of 10 October, Gabriel, his brothers, George Smith, and Sam Byrd were taken to the gallows at Broad Street and 15^th Street. Gabriel was the last to be executed that day, and was hanged alone. In the end, twenty-seven men were executed for their role in Gabriel’s plot.[26]

Today Richmond is a city of monuments and memorials, but there is not a single one standing for Gabriel. The spot where he was hanged and buried is now a parking lot for Virginia Commonwealth University and a section of Interstate 95 runs over it. The only thing commemorating the event is a small marker on the side of East Broad Street that was placed there only after a group known as the Richmond Defenders for Freedom, Justice, and Equality lobbied the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to do so.[27] In 2007, Virginia governor Tim Kaine pardoned Gabriel, saying that "I recognize Gabriel Prosser for his courage and devotion to the fundamental Virginia values of freedom and equality and I am pleased to restore officially his good name."[28] The novel Black Thunder by Arna Bontemp was written about Gabriel in 1936. In 1968, Clifford Mason produced a play called Gabriel: the Story of a Slave Rebellion, which was set in a generic plantation setting. Most recently, Richmond musician Tim Barry featured a song about Gabriel called “Prosser’s Gabriel” on his latest record.

It was only a matter of time before the slaves in the United States would rise up for their freedom. The events in Saint-Domingue, the harshness of his life as a slave, combined with a heated political climate in 1800 and the desire for all to be free and equal brought about a momentous event in Virginia and American history. Though he was not successful, his plan is not forgotten. Gabriel saw a life beyond what he and countless others were born into and decided to take a stand and rise above. For his actions, Gabriel should be remembered as a hero.

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[1] C.L.R. James, “From A History of Pan-African Revolt (1938),” African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents, ed. Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon (New York: Routledge 2010) 215.

[2] Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon, “Fever and Fret: The Haitian Revolution and African American Responses,” African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents, ed. Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon (New York: Routledge 2010) 10-11.

[3] “Nathaniel Cutting to Thomas Jefferson,” The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Volume 23: 1792, ed. Charles T. Cullen, Eugene R. Sheridan, George H. Hoemann, Ruth W. Lester (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1990) 51-52.

[4] C.L.R. James, “From A History of Pan-African Revolt (1938),” African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents, ed. Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon (New York: Routledge 2010) 217-219.

[5] C.L.R. James, “From A History of Pan-African Revolt (1938),” African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents, ed. Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon (New York: Routledge 2010) 220.

[6] C.L.R. James, “From A History of Pan-African Revolt (1938),” African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents, ed. Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon (New York: Routledge 2010) 220.

[7] Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon, “Fever and Fret: The Haitian Revolution and African American Responses,” African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents, ed. Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon (New York: Routledge 2010) 13.

[8] Chapter 11, “The Power in that Name,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 169.

[9]Chapter 3, “The Year 1800,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 46-48.

[10] Chapter 2, “An Upright Man,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 22.

[11] James Thomas Callendar to Thomas Jefferson, September 13, 1800. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 32: 1800-1801, ed. Barbara Oberg, James P. McClure, Elaine Weber Pascu (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 2005) 136-137.

[12] Chapter 2, “An Upright Man,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 31.

[13] Chapter 2, “An Upright Man,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 31-33.

[14] Chapter 3, “The Year 1800,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 35-38.

[15] Chapter 2, “Forging an Oppositional Culture: Gabriel’s Conspiracy and the Process of Cultural Appropriation, Ploughshares into Swords: Race, Rebellion, and Identity in Gabriel’s Virginia, 1730-1810, James Sidbury, (Cambridge, U.K.: University of Cambridge Press 1997) 59-60.

[16] Chapter 3, “The Year 1800,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 48-49.

[17] Chapter 4, “The Preparation,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 50-58.

[18] Chapter 4, “The Preparation,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 52

[19] Chapter 2, “Forging an Oppositional Culture: Gabriel’s Conspiracy and the Process of Cultural Appropriation, Ploughshares into Swords: Race, Rebellion, and Identity in Gabriel’s Virginia, 1730-1810, James Sidbury, (Cambridge, U.K.: University of Cambridge Press 1997) 66-67.

[20] Chapter 4, “The Preparation,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 64-65.

[21] Sheppard, Mosby. "Mosby Sheppard to Governor James Monroe 30 August 1800." http://www.lva.virginia.gov/exhibits/DeathLiberty/gabriel/sheppard10.htm

[22] Chapter 5, “A Plot Discovered,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 71-72.

[23] Chapter 5, “A Plot Discovered,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 72-73.

[24] James Monroe, Alexandria Times, published as The Times and District of Columbia Daily Advertiser, 15 September 1800.

[25] James Thomas Callendar to Thomas Jefferson, September 13, 1800. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 32: 1800-1801, ed. Barbara Oberg, James P. McClure, Elaine Weber Pascu (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 2005) 136-137.

[26] Chapter 7, “A Companion Picture,” Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, Douglas R. Egerton (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press 1993) 104-115.

[27] Ana Edwards, e-mail message to author, 20 April 2010.

[28] Jeremy Lazarus, “Virginia Governor Pardons Gabriel Prosser,” New Pittsburgh Courier 12 September 2007.