Gabriel's Rebellion: Resistance in an Age of Rhetoric
by Ana Edwards
A presentation for the panel discussion “Resistance and Abolition” for the 2008 Slave Routes
Conference “Resistance, Abolition & Creative Progress”, October 9­11, 2008
On October 10, 1800 the life of a young man named Gabriel was taken because he dared to be a
revolutionary in a revolutionary time. Just 24 years old when he died, Gabriel was an enslaved
blacksmith from the Brookfield plantation of the Prosser family in the County of Henricus which
was just 6 miles north of Richmond, Virginia. He was literate and the two and a half decades of
his life coincided with a period described by some as the “years of rising expectations.”
PART ONE ­ ​
“When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance
becomes morality.” ​
­­ Thomas Jefferson
During the American Revolution (1775­1783) British officer Lord Dunsmore lured thousands of
enslaved Blacks to fight on the side of Britain with the promise that if they would be set free.
Known as the Dunsmore Proclamation, the resulting “defections” proved to be too numerous not
to be telling of their position on the issue of freedom. According to historian Benjamin Quarles
in his book, The Negro in the American Revolution (Chapel Hill Books, 1961), “The Negro's
role in the Revolution can best be understood by realizing that his major loyalty was not to a
place nor to a people but to a principle. Insofar as he had freedom of choice, he was likely to join
the side that made him the quickest and best offer in terms of those 'unalienable rights' of which
Mr. Jefferson had spoken.”
There is almost no call to arms is more famous in the U.S. than that given by lawyer Patrick
Henry: “I know not what course others may take, but give me liberty, or give me death!” A year
later the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence includes the statement “that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
» Liberté ! Egalité ! y Fraternité ! » was the battle cry of the French Revolution (1789­1799) and
the formal affirmation of these sentiments were included in the French Declaration of Rights
(1789), in which Article 1 states “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.”
In 1791, the enslaved people of Haiti (formerly Saint Domingue) were said to have rebelled
under the banner­cry “Death or Liberty!” A long and complex struggle for liberation ensued
which cost tens of thousands of lives and yet served as an inspiration for Blacks everywhere. The
liberation of this colony in 1804 would have implications for centuries to come.
Governments being recreated based upon the principle that all “men” were apparently free and
equal” must have been exhilarating and loaded with possibility. Indeed men and women,
enslaved and free sought redress for wrongs and sued for their freedom in the courts of the new
nation. For a brief time manumissions increased. In those days, Baptists had mixed
congregations, and Methodists were known for challenging the institution of slavery – and it
seemed expectations for a just playing field were understandably high.
However these were also years of disappointment and disillusionment. Since none of these
phrases were ever intended to apply to anyone other than property­owning men of European
ancestry, to me the “self­evident truths” of the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are
created equal” becomes the first national lie. Not only that, but Virginia abolished the slave
trade in 1778, while allowing for collusion with high officials in order to continued the practice.
Resistance becomes necessary when oppression leaves no way out, and the more afraid
slave­owners became of resistance the more oppressive they became – by law or other means. By
ensuring the law was biased to favor whites over Blacks, the cracks in the rhetoric of “freedom
for all” became clear.
Gabriel had become tired of being taken advantage of by his owner as well as the merchants he
hired himself out to. Gabriel had heard the stories of Haiti, they were widespread. He’d probably
participated in some discussions about earning wages, and the ideals of the Declaration or the
Constitution. , finally had enough, and Gabriel recruited a number of committed men, trained
them to make weapons, write passes for themselves so they could travel by foot, horse or coach
throughout Central and Tidewater area in Virginia to recruit others. They were so disciplined
throughout the conspiracy that they were able to prepare between 1,000 and 2,000 to join the
effort. Other researchers have said there could have been as many as 50,000 ready to assist what
would certainly have been the largest slave rebellion the new world had ever seen.
The plan was sophisticated and straight­forward. Take a contingent of about 500 into Richmond,
send one group to set fire to warehouses on the riverfront, send another to the armory for
weapons and then rejoin the third group. Together once again, they would go to the Governor’s
mansion and group to seize the governor, James Monroe. The goal was to present themselves as
a force to be reckoned with – in order to negotiate from a position of strength, if not actual
equity. Their one demand: an end to slavery and the dictatorship of the “merchant” class.
However a terrible rainstorm washed out the creeks, bridges and roadways, forcing a one­day
delay. The resulting tension proved too much for one of the core group of conspirators, who told
a friend that convinced him to tell the friend’s owner. The militia was called out, and within 30
days 26 men had been hanged. One more reportedly committed suicide en route to trial. Gabriel
© Ana Edwards, Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, 2008
1 of 5
th​
was the 25​
man to die. At some point in the many trials someone, perhaps Gabriel, said that
they had done nothing more than what George Washington had done for his people.
At the urging of President Thomas Jefferson, also a slave owner, Monroe ordered that no more
men be executed, but instead sold south. (Jefferson was motivated not by mercy, but fear of
creating a public relations problem in Europe.) Of the key men left, eight were taken by
arrangement with traders for sale in New Orleans. Two escaped and were recaptured along the
way. But apparently news of the wide­spread rebellion had preceded them and no buyers could
be found. No more information is available about the fates of either these enslaved Blacks or the
traders.
During the Haitian revolution white and creole plantation owners fled, often with their slaves, to
the mainland United States – from New Orleans east to Florida and up into the Carolinas and
Virginia. Enslaved and free Black folk fled war­torn Haiti as well, so the possibility that some of
the survivors of Gabriel's Rebellion could have ended up living in or around New Orleans
alongside Haitian refugees sparks all manner of speculation.
On January 8, 1811, an enslaved man named Charles Deslondes, who was either a refugee of the
Haitian Revolution or was born in the Louisiana Territory north of New Orleans an enslaved
child, led a rebellion in 1811, raising a small group and attacked at nearby plantation because it
was the site of the local militia’s arsenal. The rebellion is said to have involved as many as 500,
as it proceeded toward New Orleans, but word spread ahead of them and the next day they were
surrounded at a plantation and the ensuing battle killed nearly 75 rebel slaves. The rest were
taken for trial. Deslondes may have been killed in battle or he may have stood trial. All those
convicted, some 30 or so, were taken back to their respective plantations, shot, beheaded, and
their heads were planted on spikes for all to see. So far I have not learned much more about this
rebellion – whether it spontaneously erupted or carefully organized.
PART TWO: ​
“Wherever something stands, there something else will stand.” ​
­­ Igbo saying
Abolishing the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1808 was not an act of good will nor an answer to a
call for equality and justice. It was an act of self­preservation by the slave­owning class of the
U.S. led President Jefferson. He had to minimize the growth of the enslaved population to
preclude the possibility of another “Haiti” in the U.S.
th​
For France the end of the 18​
century was a transformative period. She was simultaneously
engulfed by a populist revolution at home, alternating wars with Britain and Spain, attempting to
move in on the U.S. from its outpost in New Orleans and about to lose Saint Domingue, the
“wealthiest, most resource­rich” colony of the day. This state of affairs both extended the
struggle for Haiti's independence and made it inevitable. The price that Haitians would pay for
© Ana Edwards, Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, 2008
2 of 5
this success was sovereignty over a decimated economy. France, on the other hand, recovered
from its revolution, settled its disputes with Britain, Spain and the U.S.
January 1, 1804, Saint­Domingue declared its freedom and the nation’s name was changed to
Haiti, from the original Taino/Arawak name for the island. However for Jefferson and the U.S.
property­owning class, Haiti's success proved the most frightening vision of the future. A
th​
self­liberated Black nation, right in the U.S. “backyard,” like Cuba in the 20​
century, would
certainly prove too tempting an inspiration for the enslaved of the U.S. Rather than solidify trade
relations with Haiti as they had sought to do while France was still in the picture, Jefferson
imposed the U.S.’s first unilateral trade sanctions on the country, effectively maiming Haitian
stability for centuries to follow.
Black people, enslaved and free, paid the first and harshest prices for each of these resistance
movements.
Beginning with the debt to France and the sanctions imposed by the US, the economy of Haiti is
still reeling, 200 years later, from the punishments imposed for the audacity of its success in the
Caribbean.
Gabriel's Rebellion was the manifestation of the plantocracy’s worst nightmare – an organized,
underground liberation movement that was not only armed, but had a strategically sound plan
for reaching its goals. One result was high­level government discussions about the possibility of
ending slavery – discussions that ended after the U.S. bought the fertile Louisiana territories
from France in 1804.
The Louisiana Rebellion foretold those of Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey – armed slave revolts
that resulted in the deaths of white people. By fulfilling the expectations of their slaveholders
perpetual fears, the enslaved, and free Blacks, felt the wrath of the reassertion of white social
and legal dominance: free movement outlawed, fraternizing between the races ended, gatherings
of more than three people for anything but funerals and weddings forbidden, extreme
punishments for minor infractions and the at­will threat to free blacks of re­enslavement.
In addition, the ruling class understood the effect upon the public should the scale of these kinds
of slave­driven activities become well known and publicly debated. Therefore, one of the longest
lasting acts of retribution against the enslaved was the silencing of these histories of resistance. It
was imperative to minimize or dismiss evidence of the skill, the organization, the scope of
participation and the feasibility of success of these events.
To quell the fears of whites, all that could remain of these acts was the belief that they could only
have been the spontaneous outburst of individual troublemakers who were rapidly captured and
silenced. To ensure the submission of Blacks, all that could remain was the reassurance that
these problems were caused by troublemakers who momentarily stepped out of their assigned
© Ana Edwards, Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, 2008
3 of 5
and proper places in society and that their punishment would be swift.
It took only a generation or two for the inspiring idealism of these particular resistance
movements to all but disappear from public memory, but the truth is that resistance did and has
continued right up to the present. And the other truth is that it is still necessary.
In Richmond we tell the story of Gabriel to school­aged children so they do not learn that “no
one” fought back against slavery; and because they are taught that they can’t “really” change
anything. We tell it to adults because THEY need to understand that resistance was a daily
occurrence; that men, women and children fought back in thousands of small ways.
We are in the middle of the reclamation of the oldest municipal burial ground in Richmond for
free and enslaved Black people because of its broad historical significance to the history of
Richmond, because of the knowledge to be gained through archaeological, anthropological and
sociology investigations, and because of the need for Richmond to engage a process of
self­determination as modeled by Black New Yorkers for the NY African Burial Ground.
­ end ­
© Ana Edwards, Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project, 2008
4 of 5