Come August, Come Freedom Page 11

  “Then you must go and keep goin’. Find the Frenchman. Sail to Saint Domingue to meet your brother Toussaint and bring back many men,” Nanny implored him. She held his hand to her belly. “We are united here — Gabriel and Nanny. Half you and half me.”

  Gabriel held tight to his wife and their unborn child. The only place he felt true and belonging and free was with Nanny, yet he had not even himself to offer her. His plan to free her had failed; his plan to gain all their liberty was coming undone.

  Nanny kissed him. “Remember what you told me?”

  “Tell me what.”

  “You said there’s a place inside me that’s always been free and will always be. You said there’s a place where God lives in me. You said that’s where you live, too.”

  “Yes.”

  “I believe you,” Nanny said.

  He shook his head. “My men. The boys will be murdered.”

  “You delivered them back to the free place, to the untouched, free place. You let each man decide for himself, and they refused to ever forget. Now, what will you do?”

  “You know what will happen.”

  Her tone turned sharp. “No, I don’t.”

  He wavered. “Nan, I will hang.”

  “If you have no hope, go on and turn yourself in. Die with your men now, before they’re all killed. Hang with Solomon and Martin. But if some part of you still believes, if any part of you needs even a single free breath, then you cannot turn back.”

  Gabriel knew Nanny spoke the truth. He stood in the moonlight wishing he could spirit her away from the days ahead, wishing he could deliver her to a safe place where she could wait for him to come home to her.

  “I have to get to Jacob Kent; he can get me to Norfolk,” Gabriel said. “First I need to disappear — away from Brookfield, away from the city. If I can get word to you, I will. If you hear nothing more from me, Nanny, you know, I —. You know, don’t you?”

  “Shhh . . . I will always hear your voice in my heart, in the creek, in these trees.” She cradled his head, and when he turned his face to her, she traced his scars, his eyes, his nose, and his lips one last time. “Go. March ahead to Norfolk and bring back an army.”

  Then Gabriel vanished. He forged no pass and no freedom papers. Would he make Norfolk, find the Frenchman, or, perhaps, reach Saint Domingue?

  September 8, 1800

  Magistrates to the Governor

  Richmond

  Dear Excellency,

  This is to certify that we were examining magistrates in the case of the Negroes charged with conspiracy and a design to rebel against the white people; and from every incident which appeared at the examination, we do not hesitate to say that Gabriel, the property of Thomas H. Prosser of Henrico County, was clearly proven to be the main spring and chief mover in the contemplated rebellion.

  Given under our hands,

  Gervas Storrs

  Joseph Selden

  GABRIEL RODE into Richmond in a cart driven by Tinsley’s John. At low twelve on September fourth, he had left the swamp headed north toward Hanover Towne, where he hid out for another week. He had friends, recruits, at the tavern there and prayed they could help him get into the city undiscovered.

  Concealed underneath a mound of hay, he hardly breathed the whole twelve miles into town. As the cool September morning broke, the patrollers stopped John and asked for his papers and mulled through the cart, just avoiding the corner where Gabriel had melted away into the wood bottom. He needed to reach Jacob’s forge. He knew that to go back into Richmond was dangerous, but he saw no other way to reach Norfolk but down the James.

  The boys in Norfolk might be ready to rise. If Quersey went south there, there may be a way.

  Gabriel was known to many in the capital and could only hope that if he were to be recognized, it would be by those friends of liberty who had shared Richmond’s streets with him since he was an apprentice boy. When he reached Main Street, John drew the cart alongside a quiet alley, and Gabriel slipped away and, with help from the washerwomen, stayed hidden until dusk.

  At the forge, Jacob was waiting. They embraced.

  “Militia’s already come three times to this shop, Gabriel. They’ll return; we know that. You go to this spot four miles down the river. Wait there for the schooner called Mary; go see Captain Richard Taylor. He’ll get you to Norfolk. Maybe there you can find Quersey.”

  Just as Jacob said, a three-masted schooner sat docked on a sandbar four miles below the city. Gabriel watched the comings and goings of the Mary before he moved to board. He recognized the slave Billy. His name had never appeared on Gabriel’s list or Sam Byrd’s or Solomon’s.

  Never seen Billy anywhere near the business. Gabriel hesitated to show his face but knew he could not turn back. He waded into the water, and with his bayonet and his sword held high above his head, he requested to board. Billy nodded for Gabriel to throw down his weapons.

  My reward is posted all over town. Does Billy remember me?

  “Do I know you?” Billy asked. “Aren’t you Gabriel? Aren’t they lookin’ for you?”

  Gabriel had given up on receiving any help from Ma’s Lord, but still he looked to heaven again, as he always did when he needed a way out. Daniel, he thought. Ma always called me Daniel. So he told Billy, “I’m Daniel, not Gabriel, but I know who you mean. I’m not that man.”

  Billy took Gabriel aboard. Captain Taylor promised to get him safely to Norfolk. “I owe a debt to Jacob Kent,” Taylor said. “He took me in and got me straightened out. I owe him, and I expect you do, too.”

  For the whole of the journey, Gabriel stayed belowdeck so as not to be seen by any man on any ship or boat. He hardly ate. He hardly slept, and he spoke to no one.

  To His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia

  September 12, 1800

  9:00 p.m.

  Richmond Jail

  Sir,

  I conceive it my unbounded Duty to inclose Solomon’s Petition to Your Excellency — much good seems to flow from a rapid Execution — my day light Bell no sooner gave signal to my servants to rise to duty, than it roused the unfortunate criminals to a sense of their approaching Fate, and the whole Jail was alive to Hymns of Praise to the great God and here (I hope) penitence instantly began.

  Wm. Rose.

  PETITION FOR SOLOMON

  The Petition of the Negro man Solomon, now under sentence of death in the Jail of Richmond, Humbly represents That the petitioner would consider it as a favour of the highest importance, and as essential to his eternal welfare, if he could possibly, by Your Excellency’s goodness, obtain a respite for a few days from the execution of the just and awful sentence which has been pronounced agt. him; that this act of mercy and compassion will not only be of the utmost advantage to the petitioner, but it may ultimately promote the interest of the Commonwealth, as he is ready, if time shall be allowed to him for recollection, to make numerous and important discoveries concerning the late atrocious Conspiracy.

  CONFESSION OF SOLOMON

  My brother Gabriel was the one who influenced me to join him and others so we might conquer the white people and take their property. When I asked how, he said by falling upon them in the dead of night, at a time they would be unguarded and unsuspicious.

  When I asked who would lead it, he said a man from Caroline who was at the siege of Yorktown, and who was to meet him at the water — the Brook — and from there on to Richmond. They would take the city. This man from Caroline was to be in charge the first day, and then, after exercising the soldiers, the commander would be Gabriel. Every Sunday, my brother came to Richmond to provide ammunition to some men and to find where the military stores were deposited.

  The first places Gabriel intended to attack in Richmond were the Capitol, the Magazine, the Penitentiary, the Governor’s house, and the Governor himself. My brother planned the insurrection now because so many soldiers have been discharged in the last one or two months. He said that would make it easier.<
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  Gabriel said if they succeeded, then they would put down the whole of the country where slavery was permitted, but no further than that.

  September 12, 1800

  J. Monroe to Mayor of Williamsburg

  Richmond

  Sir,

  I have been advised that Gabriel, the slave who was at the head of the late conspiracy and intended insurrection of the slaves, was seen last night in Hanover enquiring the route to James Town. I give you this information that patroles may be ordered to search for him, since if due exertion be made it is probable he will be apprehended. I send you his description that it may be made known as generally as circumstances will permit in the lower country. I will thank you to communicate the above to the commanding officers of the regiment in James City, and likewise to Mr. Ambler at James Town, with whose slaves he is probably acquainted. Any expence attending a compliance with this request will be defrayed by the publick.

  With great respect I am, Sir,

  J. M.

  HE MADE it to the ocean. At Norfolk, Gabriel asked to go on deck; he wanted to look out at the sea.

  Captain Taylor advised him otherwise. “Stay put for now. That ocean will be there when Quersey arrives. You best keep from the light of day.”

  Gabriel stayed low; Taylor sent Billy into town to find the Frenchman. Quersey never showed.

  The arrest happened quickly and without warning. Billy returned with two constables. The constables boarded the Mary and headed straight to Gabriel’s bunk. Captain Taylor hardly had time to concoct a story, and the one he offered convinced no one. “I — I was just belowdeck writing you a letter, Constable. To tell you of my prisoner.”

  The Norfolk men arrested Captain Taylor, too. They shackled Gabriel at his ankles, with his hands bound behind him. Constable Obediah Gunn seized Gabriel’s papers — his letter from Quersey and another man from Philadelphia, the roll of names of soldiers from all across Virginia and into North Carolina, and the leaflet on which Nanny had written, for the first time, her name beside his. “Now it’s in writing,” she had said. “Nanny and Gabriel.”

  Billy stood on the dock, watching, ready to spend his reward.

  The Lord, He throws no mercy my way. The business is done.

  The men chained and ironed Gabriel, then took him before the mayor of Norfolk. He told nothing to his captors but said only, “I will speak to His Excellency, Governor Monroe. No one else.”

  My only chance to see Nanny again is to get back to Richmond. If I am tried here in Norfolk, we have no chance.

  When he returned to the capital, under guard, Gabriel found that a great crowd waited for him by the river. Some jeered and threw cabbages and squash. Others — Jacob, Mrs. Barnett, and the laundresses — walked with him up the hill to the governor’s mansion. The washerwomen sang, and their song lifted Gabriel up. They knew Gabriel, and they knew that his heart was at work not only for himself and Nan but for them, too. These women had showed him all about the creek and the river and taught him how to move about the city and hire out in his trade.

  For these true companions, Gabriel felt grateful, but the one face he needed most he did not see. He searched the streets of Richmond for Nanny, and she was not among those at the river, along the hill, or on the capitol grounds.

  So massive was the crowd that the governor appeared on his porch, and upon seeing the gathering of black and white residents that had accompanied Gabriel, the terrified Monroe gave an order for fifteen or twenty men to surround Gabriel and remove him to the penitentiary.

  From the crowd came cries to free Gabriel and shouts to hang him. The people asked for liberty, and they also asked for death. “Hang General Gabriel!” they cried. “Free the Black General!” they implored. The governor turned his back to all of the people and would not look at Gabriel.

  “Inside the mansion, Governor Monroe’s young son is dying,” remarked one of the guards.

  Ma’s Lord, He shows no mercy, Gabriel thought.

  September 24, 1800

  Thomas Newton to the Governor

  Norfolk

  Excellency,

  The bearers of this letter bring with them Negro Gabriel, taken from on board the three-masted schooner Mary, Richard Taylor, Captain, belonging to Richmond. It appears that Taylor left Richmond on Saturday night week and run aground on a bar 4 miles below Richmond.

  On Sunday morning, Gabriel hailed the Mary and was brought on board by one of the Negroes on board. The villain was armed with a bayonet fixed on a stick, which he threw into the river. Captain Taylor says he was unwell and in his cabin when Gabriel was brought on board. Negro Billy says he was asleep, and when he awakened and found Gabriel on board, he questioned him. Gabriel said that his name was Daniel.

  Capt. Taylor says that Gabriel came on board as a freeman, that he asked him for his papers but he did not shew any, saying he had left them; Capt. Taylor is an old inhabitant, been an overseer, & must have known that neither free blacks nor Slaves could travel in this Country without papers & he certainly must have had many oppertunities of securing Gabriel. In the eleven days Gabriel was on board the Mary, Captain Taylor passed Osborne’s Bermuda Hundred, City Point, and, I suppose, many vessels where he could have obtained force to have secured Gabriel. Taylor’s conduct after arriving here in Norfolk is also blamable. Mary was boarded by a Captain Inchman just below here, but Taylor never mentioned Gabriel. Even after he came up to town, he went alongside a ship with 25 men on board and never mentioned the matter.

  When he was on shore, Negro Billy mentioned the matter to a boy by the name of Norris, a blacksmith. Norris told a Mr. Woodward, who immediately took such steps to send two constables on board the Schooner Mary, where they took him. Gabriel was at liberty on board and might have made his escape.

  Mr. Taylor must have known & undoubtedly have heard of Gabriel before he left Richmond. I hope, for the sake of his family, Taylor may be able to clear himself of the opinion entertained of him here.

  Gabriel says he will give your Excy. a full information, he will confess to no one else. He will set off this day under a guard, in a vessel & probably will reach Osborne’s by Friday or Saturday. Should Your Excy. think proper, a guard may be sent Down the River & take him by land, but they will proceed by water as fast as possible & I believe there will be no danger of a rescue.

  I am with the greatest respect, Yr. Excy.’s Obt. Servt.,

  Thos. Newton

  Sheriff

  NANNY WAITED in the forest. On the morning Gabriel was set to hang, she arrived first to the woods behind Prosser’s Tavern, not far from Brookfield. Five men would die — Gabriel, Sam Byrd, George, Frank, and Gilbert. Word had quickly reached Henrico that Gabriel had petitioned the court to hang with his men in the countryside instead of alone at the gallows near the market house in Richmond.

  Will they tie four ropes or five? Nanny wondered. Will I see Gabriel today, or will he die alone in Richmond?

  The morning was clear and cool, the kind of autumn day that smells of a long-ago summer yet hints, too, at the long, suffering winter to come. The birds and rodents of the woods paid Nanny’s presence among them no mind but went about the business of foraging and burrowing and watching with her. The patrollers, assembling a makeshift gallows, paid Nanny no mind either.

  She watched them to know if her husband would die alone. Four ropes or five? The sudden stillness of the child she carried or the empty quickening of the moment turned her queasy.

  She found herself praying that Gabriel would hang there at Prosser’s Tavern and not in the city. She wanted to see him; she wanted to stand near him, sing to him, and sit by his body, caressing him until she was certain he had passed over.

  Let them tie five ropes. This was how Nanny prayed to see Gabriel. If this is to be our end, let them tie for five men. Let me stand in witness. Lord, let him hear my voice.

  All the people from all the quarters gathered in the field by the tavern; their owners encouraged them to go and watch, gave the
m time free from work so that they could witness the state exacting its price.

  When the patrollers tied but four ropes, Nanny knew. The fifth rope was being tied in Richmond. Her husband would hang alone at the Fifteenth Street gallows. They would put his body in the side of the hill, where they laid all the dead slaves of Richmond. She would never find him.

  They will build the city over him, she thought, and then the idea seized upon Nanny that if she ran, she could reach Gabriel. I will get to him within the hour. I will reach through the bars of the cart and run along beside him through the streets and not let go his hand until they peel me away. I’ll climb up the scaffold and take hold of his feet. Let them bury me and our child with him in the hill.

  But Nanny carried no remit pass, and the road to Richmond swarmed with militia. No one from the countryside dared leave now without a pass, especially those known to have been involved in the business, and though the hangings were said to be coming to an end, Nanny had been implicated by the testimony of her dear, and now dead, friend Isaac.

  When the cart came with Sam and George and Frank and Gilbert but without Gabriel to the hanging trees near Prosser’s Tavern, Nanny stepped into the crowd and made her way to the front. She was sure from where she stood, she could hear the roar of another crowd six miles away.

  In town at the gallows, they are cheering him! The people are cheering General Gabriel, Nanny imagined.

  The hangman’s cart drove away, leaving the boys of the business to dangle from the live-oak limbs. Nanny raised her fist to heaven. “Death or liberty!” she cried out. Let them take me and my child, too, Nanny thought, but no one did.

  As Nanny witnessed the four men fall, she witnessed Gabriel fall four times over. Whether his name is Sam or George or Gilbert or Frank, his name is also Gabriel.