Gabriel's Rebellion

Gabriel Prosser, an enslaved blacksmith near Richmond, Virginia, organized approximately 1,000 enslaved people to march on Richmond, seize the arsenal, take Governor James Monroe hostage, and demand freedom. A thunderstorm and betrayal by two informers foiled the plan. Gabriel and 25 co-conspirators were hanged. Monroe's correspondence with Thomas Jefferson reveals both men's terror of a Virginia equivalent of the Haitian Revolution.