The AP story is incorrect about the date of Prosser's execution:  August 30 was the planned date for the uprising.  Arrests of alleged rebels began soon after that, but Gabriel himself managed to hide out for about a month before he was, again, betrayed.  He was trying to get to Norfolk where he might have been able to catch a ship to take him from the area when he was recognized and turned in for the reward.  He was tried in early October and then executed October 10.

David Kiracofe

David Kiracofe
History
Tidewater Community College
Chesapeake Campus
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>>> Jurretta Heckscher <[log in to unmask]> 09/03/07 3:00 AM >>>
 From the Associated Press:

"Virginia governor 'pardons' slave who led 'Gabriel's Rebellion'
The Associated Press
August 31, 2007

Gabriel Prosser, who was hanged for leading a failed slave revolt in  
1800, has won a symbolic gubernatorial pardon.

Prosser and 34 supporters were executed in Richmond on Aug. 30, 1800,  
after two slaves revealed the planned uprising in Richmond, known as  
Gabriel's Rebellion.

In his informal pardon, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Prosser was  
motivated by 'his devotion to the ideals of the American revolution _  
it was worth risking death to secure liberty.'

'Gabriel's cause _ the end of slavery and the furtherance of equality  
of all people _ has prevailed in the light of history,' Kaine said in  
a letter to the Virginia chapter of the NAACP, which sought the pardon.

'It is important to acknowledge that history favorably regards  
Gabriel's cause while consigning legions who sought to keep him and  
others in chains to be forgotten,' Kaine wrote."


Complete story at http://www.topix.net/content/ap/2007/08/virginia- 
governor-pardons-slave-who-led-gabriels-rebellion


--Jurretta Heckscher