1775
- March 23: Patrick Henry’s famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia.
- Probable birth year of both Gabriel and Thomas Henry Prosser.
- April: Continental Congress votes to halt the slave trade—not as an act of idealism, but as a means of shutting down British trade.
- July: Declaration of Independence. Removed: “[King George] has waged cruel war on human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.” Thomas Jefferson owned over 200 slaves when he wrote these words.
- General Assembly moves the capital of Virginia from Williamsburg to Richmond.
- Virginia independence from Great Britain.
- Jefferson proposes abolition of slavery.
- The British army, under turncoat Benedict Arnold, invade, loot, and burn Richmond and several local plantations. Many of the enslaved are liberated, with many of them joining the British army.
- James Monroe, age 28, marries Elizabeth Kortright, age 18, in New York City.
- slavery abolished in France by the French Revolution.
- Haitian Revolution, which included many white owners fleeing to Virginia, especially Norfolk, with their slaves.
- Invention of the cotton gin, increasing the need for slave labor, while tobacco prices fell.
- St. Domingue—French capital falls; whites flee with their slaves to America, including Norfolk.
- France makes slavery illegal in their Caribbean islands.
- Patrick Henry dies (May 1735-Jun 6, 1799).
- George Washington dies (Feb 1732-Dec 14, 1799). 1st President (Apr 1789-Mar 1797). Martha Washington died in May 1802.
- James Monroe moves to Highland (Virginia); elected governor of Virginia.
- Richmond population: 5,700.
- Richmond canal opens.
- Thomas Jefferson was age 57 (Apr 1743-Jul 4, 1826). The federal election results in his becoming 3rd President (Mar 1801-Mar 1809).
- James Monroe (Apr 1758-Jul 4, 1831) was 42. He later became 5th President of the United States (Mar 1817—Mar 1825).
- Dec 1: General Assembly (Virginia legislature) session begins. Monroe reports on Gabriel’s conspiracy on December 5th.
- Gabriel’s conspiracy—72 men prosecuted from Sep 11-Dec 1. 26 hanged + 1 suicide; 8 transported out of state; 13 condemned but then pardoned (saving $4,572), 0 white fatalities. Cost of militia and guards: $9,139.67. That would be over $200,600 in the 2021 value of the dollar.
- Ben Woolfolk testified in 30+ trials; Prosser’s Ben, in 36 trials, Price’s John, in 12 trials.
- Second Great Awakening (1790-1840) gains momentum. This revival of Christianity rejected skeptical rationalism and deism (typified by Thomas Jefferson). It was characterized by enthusiasm, emotion, an appeal to the supernatural. The leadership was leader up of “Post Millennialists”, who preached that Christ would not return until society had been purified.
- Feb 17: The House of Representatives, after many rounds of voting, finally breaks the electoral tie between presidential candidates Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson. (Contrary to the musical "Hamilton," Jefferson did not win "in a landslide.")
- March 4: Jefferson was inaugurated.
- June 25: Thomas Henry Prosser married Lucy Bolling Hylton in St. John’s Church, Richmond Virginia, the same church where Patrick Henry gave his famous speech.
- Freed blacks are required by law to leave Virginia within 12 months, or face being re-enslaved.
- Virginia Assembly bans the hiring out of slaves.
- James Monroe begins his first of two terms as President of the U.S.
- Thomas Henry and Lucy Bolling Prosser’s first-born son, Albert, who was trained as a medical doctor, dies suddenly at the age of 24.
- Nat Turner’s slave uprising.
- John Brown’s slave uprising.
- Aug 31: “Governor Timothy Kaine is informally pardoning Gabriel Prosser, hanged for leading a failed slave revolt in Virginia more than 200 years ago this week.” This effort was led by Haskell S. Bingham, retired VP of Academic Affairs at Virginia State University, the great-great grandson of Gabriel. This effort also led to a marker on Broad Street near the gallows. (Schapiro, 2007).
- Sep 22: The "Emancipation and Freedom Monument" is installed on Brown's Island in Richmond Virginia. The pedestal contains the names, images and stories of 10 people, including Gabriel, whose lives and contributions represent the struggle for freedom before and after Emancipation.