I am not sure I see the connection between this topic and the causes of the Civil War?  This strikes me as something of a non sequitor.

Regarding Gabriel Prosser.  There has been some speculation that his rebellion may never have existed at all, save in the fears of slave owners.  All of the evidence we have for his rebellion is the result of a flawed Virginia legal process, which may very well simply have confirmed the fears of slave owners.  Given the provenance of the data, it does strike me as reasonable that we treat the alleged rebellion with due skepticism.

Were it the case, however, that Gabriel's rebellion were simply the projection of white fears as mediated by a coercive and unjust legal system, the episode becomes even more damning.  After all, in that case it confirms not only the tyranny of slavery, but likewise the underlying acknowledgement of that tyranny by the slave owners themselves.

Mr. South's comparison of Gabriel's rebellion with the recent violence at Virginia Tech is either an expression of deep ignorance or deep cynicism.  No one on this list doubts that slavery was tyrannical, violent, and oppressive.  It stifled the spirit of both slave and slave owner, degraded the dignity of every person who came into contact with it, denied the most fundamental premises of Protestant Christianity by restricting access to the bible to slaves, and violated the most basic of principles on which our Republic is founded.  If you believe in the ideals of classical liberalism as articulated by political philosophers like John Locke or Algernon Sydney, then you can not believe anything other than that Gabriel Prosser, whether real or fictive, is deserving of our Governor's pardon.

There is of course, one way to reconcile our founding ideals with the notion that slavery is just and decent.  That is to deny that the people who are enslaved are capable of exercising responsible adult rationality, and thus of behaving as competent, self-governing citizens.  That was the argument that Southern apologists for slavery made in the years before the civil war.  I find it hard to believe, however, that any serious person would want to make that argument today.

All best,
Kevin  
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University