[Footnote 60:  Ibid., VI, 490, letter of a citizen who had just found four strange negroes hanging from the branches of a tree near his door.]

[Footnote 61:  C.C.  Robin, Voyages (Paris, 1806), II, 244 ff.; E.P.  Puckett, “Free Negroes in Louisiana” (MS.).]

[Footnote 62:  M Puckett, op. cit.  Le Moniteur de la Louisiane (New Orleans), Feb. 11, 1811, has mention of the manumission of a mulatto slave at this time on the ground of his recent valiant defence of his master’s house against attacking insurgents.]

Gabriel’s rising in the vicinity of Richmond, however, eclipsed all other such events on the continent in this period.  Although this affair was of prodigious current interest its details were largely obscured by the secrecy maintained by the court and the legislature in their dealings with it.  Reports in the newspapers of the time were copious enough but were vague except as to the capture of the leading participants; and the reminiscent journalism of after years was romantic to the point of absurdity.  It is fairly clear, however, that Gabriel and other slaves on Thomas H. Prosser’s plantation, which lay several miles distant from Richmond, began to brew the conspiracy as early as June, 1800, and enlisted some hundreds of confederates, perhaps more than a thousand, before September 1, the date fixed for its maturity.  Many of these were doubtless residents of Richmond, and some it was said lived as far away as Norfolk.  The few muskets procured were supplemented by cutlasses made from scythe blades and by plantation implements of other sorts; but the plan of onslaught contemplated a speedy increase of this armament.  From a rendezvous six miles from Richmond eleven hundred men in three columns under designated officers were to march upon the city simultaneously, one to seize the penitentiary which then served also as the state arsenal, another to take the powder magazine in another quarter of the town, and the third to begin a general slaughter with such weapons as were already at hand.

Things progressed with very little hitch until the very eve of the day set.  But then two things occurred, either of which happening alone would probably have foiled the project.  On the one hand a slave on Moseley Sheppard’s plantation informed his master of the plot; on the other hand there fell such a deluge of rain that the swelling of the streams kept most of the conspirators from reaching the rendezvous.  Meanwhile couriers had roused the city, and the rebels assembled could only disperse.  Scores of them were taken, including eventually Gabriel himself who eluded pursuit for several weeks and sailed to Norfolk as a stowaway.  The magistrates, of course, had busy sessions, but the number of death sentences was less than might have been expected.  Those executed comprised Gabriel and five other Prosser slaves along with nineteen more belonging to other masters; and ten others, in scattered ownership, were deported.