Governor pardons slave who led revolt near Bryan Park
Our friends at the Near West End News recently reported on Governor Kaine’s pardon of former Henrico resident and slave Gabriel Prosser for leading a rebellion more than 200 years ago. That rebellion started at Spring Park Historic Site (off of Lakeside Avenue behind the Bank of America). In restoring Prosser’s “good […]
Our friends at the Near West End News recently reported on Governor Kaine’s pardon of former Henrico resident and slave Gabriel Prosser for leading a rebellion more than 200 years ago. That rebellion started at Spring Park Historic Site (off of Lakeside Avenue behind the Bank of America).
In restoring Prosser’s “good name,” Kaine said the slave, put to death in 1800 with 34 other African-Americans, was motivated by “his devotion to the ideals of the American revolution — it was worth risking death to secure liberty.”
Prosser, the property of a Henrico planter, envisioned an uprising by thousands of slaves that would include the “wholesale massacre” of whites in Richmond and other slave-holding areas, according to journalist-historian Virginius Dabney in “Richmond: The Story of a City.”
Unfolding 31 years before the better-known Nat Turner insurrection in Southampton County, the Prosser-led revolt began in Richmond on Aug. 30, 1800. The plot was thwarted after two slaves confessed to a white plantation owner, who immediately alerted Gov. James Monroe, a future president.
A powerful rainstorm forced a delay in the rebellion, giving the militia time to round up Prosser and others. Tried and condemned to death, many of the slaves were hanged near what is now Broad and 15th streets, according to Dabney.
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