Gabriel Prosser (drawing)
The birth of Gabriel Prosser in 1776 is remembered on this date. He was a Black abolitionist.
A slave child, Gabriel was born to a family owned by Thomas Henry Prosser of the Brookfield Plantation in Henrico County, Virginia. Viewed as a "man of courage and intellect above his rank and life," Prosser was an imposing figure. He was dark-skinned and stood 6 feet, 2 or 3 inches tall. 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 Sundays off. They could earn some money 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 of the top. This exploitative system was grounds for revolt among the slaves.
In 1800, Prosser and several other slaves plotted their revolution, planning to marshal the forces of up to 10,000 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 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. On August 30, torrential rains washed away roads and bridges, limiting the movement of the rebellious slaves.
About 30 slaves were captured and executed. Prosser, however, eluded the militia and escaped down the Chickahominy River. The governor put a $300 reward on his head, and on September 24, he was captured aboard a ship in Norfolk, VA. On October 10, 1800, at Richmond's gallows at 15th and Broad streets, Gabriel Prosser was hanged; he was 24 years old.
His quest for freedom only tightened the grip of slavery. In the aftermath of the insurrection, slave laws were toughened in Virginia and other states, North and South. In Virginia, abolition societies were driven underground, and travel was restricted. Free blacks who did not leave the state within six months risked re-enslavement.
Prosser heralded the cause of independence for himself and all slaves, a cause for which he was willing to take extreme measures and pay the ultimate price. On August 30th, 2007, black freedom fighter Gabriel Prosser was (posthumously)pardoned by (then) Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and
African American Experience
Editors: Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Copyright 1999
ISBN 0-465-0071-1
