Brookfield Plantation and Gabriel's Rebellion

This is roughly the location of the Thomas Henry Prosser Plantation where enslaved persons like Gabriel, Solomon, Ben, Martin, and others lived. Prosser worked in this area, the city now covering it, in order to extend his property to a peak of about 2,000 acres. Brookfield is where Gabriel and many of the other slaves grew up and got to know one another, leading to them coming together later in their revolt which is known as Gabriel's Rebellion.

At this location in 1776, Gabriel Prosser was born on a plantation owned by Thomas Prosser. Growing up alongside his brother Solomon, the two young enslaved men both learned to read and were trained as a Blacksmiths, likely by their biological father. When Thomas Prosser died, his son Thomas Henry took over the plantation. Sources indicate that Thomas Henry was a much harsher slave master, but continued the practice of selling the services of Gabriel and Solomon to to others in the area in need of Blacksmith work. This permitted the two to earn a small portion of the proceeds as an incentive. This practice also made it possible for Gabriel to meet and talk to many of the enslaved people he would eventually lead in one of the most historically significant slave rebellions in American history.

“Lost Architecture - Brookfield Plantation.” Henrico County (Virginia) Historical Society - Lost Architecture - All Sites, 1995, http://www.henricohistoricalsociety.org/lostarchitecture.brookfieldplantation.html. 

“Africans in America/Part 3/Gabriel's Conspiracy.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p1576.html.