Gabriel's Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802

It is so refreshing to read a work by an academic historian that has clear points laid out in the introduction, cogent arguments that are supported in the body of the text, and a writing style mercifully free of mind-bending jargon . Egerton combines the best of social history (focus on everyday lives of non-elites) with a discussion of the political mood of young nation searching for its own definition(s) of freedom. I would heartily recommend this work for anyone attempting to understand slave resistance and the varieties of the slave "experience" in North America. This is a great addition to an already expansive literature on slavery, and I look forward to reading Egerton's recent work on Denmark Vesey.

Egerton does a masterful job of placing slavery within the broad context of revolutinary America. Gabriel's rebellion was born not only out of the opression of slavery but out of the political theory embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the conflict betweent the Republicans and Federalists to determine whether those principals would be part of American life. To a large extent, Gabriel was doomed because he believed that the political rhetoric of the Republicans extended beyond men with white skin.Most intersting is the discussion of the very real attempts to end slavery in Virginia after the rebellion. There is some real irony that Jefferson - the father of American democracy - was the one that killed any hope for the peaceful end of slavery. In the end, Egerton is correct that once Virginians decided to continue their peculiar institution, that opressive control of slaves rather than the principals that the revolution was fought over had to be the controlling philosophy.This is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand how slavery fit within the context of American political thought.