Gabriel's Rebellion
Richmond honors slave uprising of 1800
Special to Workers World
Richmond, Va.
"Death or Liberty!"
That was to have been the rallying cry of Gabriel's
Rebellion, a carefully planned but tragically aborted mass
uprising against slavery in Virginia in the summer of 1800.
The slogan was painted on a simple, muslin-cloth banner that
hung behind the speaker's podium at a public meeting held Oct.
10 in Richmond to honor Gabriel and all who struggled with
him.
The meeting took place on the 203rd anniversary of Gabriel's
execution. It was sponsored by the Defenders for Freedom,
Justice and Equality, a largely African-American community
group.
Keynote speaker Dr. Haskell Bingham, a college
administrator, family historian and Gabriel's
great-great-grandson, told the audience of more than 90 people
the story of the rebellion.
On Aug. 30, 1800, thousands of enslaved Black people had
been prepared to march into Richmond, seize the state armory
and force Gov. James Monroe to declare an end to slavery.
Their leader was a charismatic, 24-year-old blacksmith named
Gabriel, who was influenced by both the Haitian and French
revolutions. "Death or Liberty" was a Haitian slogan.
Because of Virginia's key role in the system of slavery and
Richmond's status as the industrial center of the pre-Civil-War
South, a successful slave rebellion could have changed the
course of U.S. history.
As it was, a terrible thunderstorm the night of the planned
uprising forced a one-day delay, which proved fatal to the
effort. At least 27 co-conspirators were captured, tried and
hung.
Gabriel was executed on Oct. 10, 1800, at the city gallows,
located near downtown in a forbidding, low-lying area that also
held the "Burial Ground for Negroes."
To this day, in a city known for its scores of memorials
honoring pro-slavery generals and politicians, not a single
sign or plaque marks the site of Gabriel's execution, or even
the burial ground, now covered over by a privately owned
parking lot.
At the meeting, held at an historic Black church 14 blocks
from the burial ground, Defenders member Ana Edwards announced
plans for a fundraising campaign to place a state historical
marker at the site.
Also speaking were former City Council member Sa'ad El-Amin,
who last year successfully introduced a council resolution
honoring Gabriel as a "freedom fighter"; Elizabeth Kambourian,
a Richmond historian who discovered the existence of the
long-forgotten burial ground; and Phil Wilayto, a reporter who
has written about both Gabriel and the burial ground for the
African-American newsweekly Richmond Free Press.
Tara Plummer of the Defenders urged participants to attend
the Oct. 25 anti-war march in Washington, D.C., sponsored by
International ANSWER and other organizations.
The meeting's participants then lined up behind the banner
with the words "Death or Liberty" and marched to the burial
ground, carrying the rebellion's defiant demand to the site of
Gabriel's execution. There they laid a wreath in honor of all
the rebellion's participants, and all the anonymous ancestors
buried below the parking lot.
Reprinted from the Oct. 23, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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