Come August, Come Freedom (15 page)

Ben would not be satisfied with their answers. “Gabriel, how many names? Are you marching us to our certain deaths?”

A grumbling spread through them. One or two recruits started back toward the women.

I’m losing them,
Gabriel thought.
If Ben goes, they may all go.
“How many will join us? One thousand in Richmond, six hundred from Ground Squirrel Bridge, four hundred in Goochland.” He pleaded for help from the sky. “I have ten thousand names! Read for yourself. Count them; read each name aloud for all of us to hear.” Gabriel thrust his papers to Ben, who he knew could not read.

When Ben handed the list of names back to him, Gabriel reassured all of the men. “We are strong enough to get the business done.”

“How will you make enough arms to take Richmond?” the late recruit Sheppard’s Pharoah then asked.

“No need. If you were paying close watch the way I do, you’d know we need only enough force to take Goodall’s Tavern. The militia deposited arms there for counting and repair.” He heard the grumbling begin to shift back his way.

“My brother’s right,” Martin said. “The governor ordered the militia to disarm. We can arm ourselves easily at Goodall’s and from there march to the capitol.”

Gabriel spoke again. “I sent Jupiter to Bob Cooley, who guards all the buildings at the capitol. Mister Cooley has agreed to leave the armory unlocked. We need only say when.” This was enough to rouse the boys into full swing and secure their confidence in Gabriel.

Gabriel told them no more. Some were content to know that he had a plan and that French officers stood on their side and at the ready. For others, Gabriel’s decision to send Sam Byrd to enlist the Catawba Indians and the poor whites and the free blacks stoked their spirits.

“When they see we are black and white and Indian, our victory will be assured. Death or liberty, boys!” they shouted.

Ben persisted in his doubts and called for the men to vote on who should lead the business, and by a large margin, the boys on the brook elected Gabriel their general.

“Why are we waiting? Let us move the business forward now!” cried Gilbert. “General Gabriel, lead us to the capital city tonight!”

Disagreement rose up among them about when to move ahead with the business. George said he needed more time. He had recruited only fifty men from Manchester and thirty-seven from Hungry meetinghouse. “Defer the business for as long as possible. We need every man,” George argued.

“Summer’s about over. We must avoid fighting a winter war,” Gilbert countered.

After worship at Young’s spring, while the women cooled their ankles in the brook and while sisters and friends rejoiced in the company of one another, the men took a second vote — this time to determine the date of the insurrection. The boys defied the permits burning in their pockets and voted that the business of liberty would move forward the next Saturday night, August 30, 1800.

GABRIEL WAS
to meet Solomon and Jupiter in the forest at his shop on the morning of the appointed Saturday for final preparations. The two brothers reached the shop at the same time. Gabriel made fire; he would cast more bullets and cut more swords while they waited for Jupiter and for nightfall.

Gabriel expected four hundred, five hundred, maybe one thousand men from Goochland, Henrico, Hanover, and Caroline. Another thousand armed soldiers would fall in with them at Richmond. The rest would join once they took the city. He had ordered them to meet at Brook Bridge; all were to bring what arms they could secure. Some would bring clubs and sticks; others would carry the weapons that Gabriel and Solomon had crafted from the scythes used to cut tobacco and wheat. A few would take swords off great-house mantels and rifles from under great-house beds. They would gather at midnight, and he would need every hour until then to make ready.

Will these last bullets give us victory?
he asked himself.

“If we use the coming night to fight. If we remember we are men with an equal right to freedom,” Gabriel said, not realizing he spoke out loud.

“What, Brother?”

“We’ve done all we can do,” he told Solomon. “Our deliverance is in our hands.” To himself, he prayed for God to be real and on the good side of the business.

All morning, the brothers worked alone and in quiet, readying the small, homemade arsenal to move to Brook Bridge once the sun set. Just past noon, Gabriel heard Nanny calling him. She had run all the way from Wilkinson’s.

“Here,” she said, out of breath. “Sit down and eat. Take your nourishment, now. Both of you.” Nanny unwrapped two hoecakes and a sweet potato for each brother from her bandanna. “Share this meal with me.” Nanny took her husband’s left hand and held it tight. “I love you, Gabriel.”

He opened Nanny’s kerchief and smelled the still-warm yam, then blew the ashes off. He wiped his hands on his shirt before taking a bite. “I’m wearing my Nanny shirt.” He pointed to the delicate red stitches adorning the cuffs near his wrists and lacing the collar at his heart. He told his wife, “Forgive me for not teaching you every word you ever wanted to read.”

Nanny shook her head. “You taught me to write our names. And when we are free and eatin’ with the merchants of the city, we will take up my lessons again.”

In front of Solomon, Gabriel grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in close. “It’s a beautiful day for love.” But the shop — bustling toward freedom — was too busy for love.

Sam Byrd stopped in to report that the roads looked clear, but to the west the sky did not. Isaac and Ben came to collect their weapons. But Isaac hesitated to take his sword from Gabriel.

“Something wrong with you, Isaac?” Gabriel asked him.

Isaac jutted his chin out. “Nothin’ the matter.”

“Good. This is a day for men, not chickenhearted boys.” Gabriel bumped the young recruit on his way to get more wood for the fire.

Sam Byrd and Ben laughed.

Isaac looked over at Nanny and blurted out, “You told us not to repeat the business in front of any woman, General.”

Gabriel spun around to Isaac, his voice forceful and clear. “Nanny
is
the business; she’s not just any woman. We need her. If the business goes bad, and we end up taking to the swamp, she’ll run our provisions and messages. Nanny’s life will be on the line with ours. What you hear from Nanny, you hear from me. Understand?”

Isaac saluted.

Solomon dunked the bullet mold into a bucket of cool water, and when the burst of steam hissed, Isaac jumped.

“Isaac, it’s all right to feel afraid,” Nanny said, trying to reassure the unlikeliest of soldiers. Gabriel’s eyes met Nanny’s. They knew that anyone who backed out now would endanger everyone involved.

“What do I do?” Isaac asked her.

Isaac looks like a child, not a warrior,
Gabriel thought. He nodded to his wife that she should answer.

Nanny tried to embolden Isaac. “You will go to Brook Bridge with the sword Gabriel made you. There, one thousand freedom fighters will join you. Your children, wherever they are, will be free because of what you do on this night. Isaac, do you believe me?”

“The business will never work. You know that, don’t you, Gabriel?” Ben asked from the corner.

Isaac stood shaking.

Ben didn’t hide his doubt. “Our general is sending us to our deaths; the black general is ready to fight. But are you ready to fall, Gabriel? Are you ready to die?”

“Hush your mouth, Ben.” Nanny held her hand out to Isaac. “The business will work. Gabriel’s army will march into Richmond in three columns. You need only to get to the capitol; there you will re-arm. Bob Cooley will unlock the armory. Some will march to Rocketts and set it on fire to draw the city men away from the capitol. Others will have already taken the weapons from Goodall’s Tavern. Another column will take the powder from the penitentiary. All will come back together under Gabriel’s command. Once the governor is in our custody, the army will head south to Petersburg, then Norfolk. Along the way, others will join in: Frenchmen, workers, freemen, the Catawba. The business will work. Am I right, Ben?”

Ben stared out the door. “A storm’s comin’. Nanny, come see these dark clouds.”

Isaac went to the door; Nanny followed and put her arms around his shoulders.

“Ignore him,” Nanny said of Ben. “He’s not a man today.”

Isaac confessed to Nanny, “I don’t want to die.”

She kissed her friend’s forehead. “Shhhh. It’s all right; it’s all right.”

Gabriel threw down his hammer and shouted at Isaac, “Tell me something. Where is Venus? Where did Thomas Henry send her?”

“To Amherst County, across the mountains,” Isaac answered.

“Are you sure? Where is your daughter? Your son?”

“Gone. Sold. I don’t know why. I don’t know where,” Isaac answered, staring at the ground.

“Yes, gone. All of them. Aren’t you already dying? Look here, what kind of man are you, Isaac?” Gabriel asked. “Your freedom starts in this instant. Right now, you must decide.”

Isaac closed his eyes and whispered, “I am a true man.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Isaac cleared his throat. “General Gabriel, here are my hands. Here is my heart. I am ready to fight for my country.”

By sunset, the western August sky had darkened, and the rain had arrived. Those first gusts of wind and the early smell of rain did not dissuade them. Gabriel and Solomon and Sam Byrd all agreed that the business would still go forward. They would not turn back. They even believed that the approaching storm might make the work easier to carry out, for it would keep the patrollers inside while the boys took the city.

The storm did not relent. Soon the rain overtook the roads, the creek, and the meadows. The water rose too fast, sweeping cows out of their fields and pulling horses out from under their riders. Heifers and goats scrambled to reach high ground but lost their footing, fell, and drowned by the dozens. Brook Bridge — Gabriel’s access to the city — crumbled in minutes. No bridges were left passable because no bridges were left. The places that could once be forded could no longer. Brookfield was cut off from Richmond.

Gabriel waited until his only choice was to postpone the rising until Sunday. He and Jupiter and Solomon and Sam and also Nanny split up to get the word across the countryside: “Abandon the business! We will advance tomorrow instead. Meet at Prosser’s tobacco house on Sunday night.”

They went from quarter to tavern to quarter, giving the new order to anyone they could find.

August 30, 1800

Mosby Sheppard to Governor Monroe

Richmond

Dear Governor,

I have just been informed by two of my hands, Pharoah and Tom, that the Negroes were to rise (as they termed it) in the neighborhood of Mr. Thomas H. Prosser’s and to kill the neighbors, viz. Major Wm. Mosby, Thomas H. Prosser, and Mr. Johnson; from thence they were to proceed to town, where they would be joined by the Negroes of this place (Richmond), after which they were to take possession of the arms and ammunition, and then take possession of the town.

Here the two stopped, appearing much agitated. I then asked them two questions.

When was it to take place?

Answer: To-night.

Who is the principal man?

Answer: Prosser’s Gabriel.

I have given you the substance of what I have heard, and there is no doubt in my mind but what my information is true, and I have given you this information in order that the intended massacre may be prevented if possible.

I am, with due respect,

Mosby Sheppard

N.B. I will here recite to you the manner in which I got this information. I was sitting in the counting-room with the door shut, and no one near except myself; Pharoah and Tom knocked at the door, and I let them in; they shut the door themselves and then began to tell what I have before recited.