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Brief Biography Of Gabriel Prosser

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Gabriel was born in 1776 on Thomas Prosser's tobacco plantation in Henrico County, Virginia. Gabriel and his brother began training as blacksmiths. His father was a blacksmith as well because skills were usaully passed from generation to generation in Virginia slave families. (PBS.org) When Gabriel was a child he was taught how to read and write as well.
Gabriel Prosser was a leader of an unsuccessful slave revolt in Richmond, Virginia in 1800 (Aptheker 1974). Gabriel was also born into slavery around 1775, him and his family were all owned by the same slave master and all participated in the slave insurrection. At the Age of twenty-four he was illiterate but, Prosser had a plan with the help of other slaves to be in control of Richmond by …show more content…

Prosser planned to initiate the insurrection on the night of August 30, 1800. Earlier in the day two slaves who wanted to protect their masters betrayed the plot to Virginia authorities. Governor James Monroe alerted the militia. (Aptheker 1974). Also, due to a rainstorm the insurrection was delayed a whole day. This gave the militia more time to prepare themselves for the attack of Gabriel Pressor and his supporters. Prosser found out his plan got been exposed and eventually they captured 35 of his leaders but Prosser escaped. Once again, the slaves betrayed Prosser and told where he was because they were going to be rewarded on September 25th. After capturing Gabriel Prosser for his plan of taking over Virginia and killing many white people he was set to trial for his actions. A few days lately he was found guilty on October 6, 1800 and executed the following day (Aptheker …show more content…

He was already familiar with the great Haitian slave revolt of the 1790s, while working as a carpenter he read anti-slavery literature (Britannica 2017). Vesey was not happy with second-class status as a freedman and wanted to help relieve the far more oppressive conditions of bondsmen. Vesey planned and organized an uprising of city and plantation blacks. The plan called for the rebels to attack guardhouses and arsenals, seize their arms, kill all whites, burn, and destroy the city, and free the slaves. There were about 9,000 blacks that were involved.

The Northern Abolitionist movement in the United States was to end slavery. Gabriel and his brother brought together enslaved and freed African American, poor whites, and Native Americans to rebel against wealthy whites (Lewis 2017). Due to the weather and slaves backing out the rebellion did not take place.
In 1822, Vesey and other leaders from the African American church began plotting a rebellion (pbs.org). Vesey set the date for revolt on July 14th, planning to attack Charleston’s arsenals and guard houses. Also, to kill every white man they saw. Many slaves were scared about the plan because they thought they were going to get caught. Due to the slaves fear they leaked their plans to their masters. Vesey was captured on June 22nd and was tortured and threatened of execution because they refused to give up who was involved with their plan. On

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