Gabriel's Insurrection: A Full Length Historical Drama

By Ron Larson

Perhaps no state rivals Virginia when it comes to early history. Yet, there are many aspects of Virginia's early history that are either unknown or vaguely known by the general public. Over the last thirty years, Larson has written over thirty plays that deal with these aspects and the generally well-known men and women involved in them. These people include such names as Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Patrick Henry, Meriwether Lewis, John Randolph, John Robinson, Nathaniel Bacon, William Berkeley, John Chiswell, Martha Jefferson, Harry Lee, Nancy Randolph, Theodosia Burr and Edmund Pendleton.
The name Gabriel Prosser is little known, yet in the summer of 1800 this enslaved blacksmith planned to lead a large slave insurrection in the Richmond area; however information regarding the revolt was leaked prior to its execution and Gabriel's plans were thwarted. Gabriel and twenty-six members of the revolt were hanged.
In 2007 Virginia Governor Tim Kaine gave Gabriel and his followers an informal pardon in recognition that his cause, "the end of slavery and the furtherance of equality for all people --- has prevailed in the light of history."

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: May 31, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462023806

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Copyright © 2011 by Ron Larson.

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ISBN: 978-1-4620-2379-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-2380-6 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 05/25/2011

Contents

Characters

Act I

Act II

ACT III

Characters

Slaves and sons of Thomas Prosser:

MARTIN PROSSER, eldest of the Prosser brothers, blacksmith

GABRIEL PROSSER, the middle Prosser brother, blacksmith

SOLOMON PROSSER, the youngest Prosser brother, assistant to Jim Ryan, overseer of the Prosser plantation

Slaves, daughters and house servants of Mosby Sheppard:

ROSE SHEPPARD, eldest Sheppard sister

IRIS SHEPPARD, the middle Sheppard sister

LILY SHEPPARD, the youngest Sheppard sister

Other characters:

JACK SMITH, manumitted slave and son of Mosby Sheppard, blacksmith, brother of the Sheppard sisters

JOHN KELLY, deputy of Henrico County, Virginia’s sheriff’s department

The action takes place in the recreation area of Prosser’s Methodist Church in Henrico County, Virginia, July 4, August 24 and October 13, 1800.

Act I

Scene. A beautiful July Fourth at noon, 1800. The recreation area of Prosser’s Methodist Church on Thomas Prosser’s plantation in Henrico County, Virginia. A part of the church is seen center, back; a sexton’s shed center left; an exit is behind it that leads to a copse of trees; the other exit is right up which leads to the unseen church kitchen and the front of the church. Tables and chairs are distributed throughout a sandy area. The tables are laden with boxes and baskets of picnic items. At rise, the three handsome, mulatto Prosser brothers enter right each carrying a box which they place on the table. They are wearing inexpensive cotton clothing and brogans. Solomon is perspiring heavily and extracts a handkerchief from a back pocket and wipes his face and neck and then returns it to his back pocket.

GABRIEL: It’s gonna be a fine meal for me. I’m already hungry. I won’t need any sauce.

MARTIN: Yeah, my mouth is watering just smelling the food.

GABRIEL: I can hardly wait to sink my teeth into it. But I guess I can hold off for another hour, or so. Then it’ll be gone in no time considering the appetites of the fifty or so field hands. (To Solomon.) Brother, you’re sweating like a mule.

SOLOMON: That’s ’cause I was acting like one, toting all the beef, bacon, ham and lemonade into the kitchen while you each took a lazy man’s load. The heaviest thing you two toted was maybe a chicken or two.

MARTIN: It appears that Sol and Jack may soon be engaging in one of the country’s oldest professions.

SOLOMON: What makes you think that? Where’d you hear that?

MARTIN: Sol, you oughta know that secrets can’t be kept around here when it comes to us negroes. With us, a secret is either too good to keep or it’s too hard not to tell.

GABRIEL: Yeah, but we do keep our lips buttoned around whites. (Pause.) I think all that glowing Sol’s been doing is due to the fact that he was lit up last night along with Jack. Drink it at night and wear it the next day. It’s such a lovely scent. (Laughs.)

SOLOMON: At least I don’t smell of tobacco smoke like you two do. Yeah, I need smokes like I need a cough. And your gossiping is like smoke, it proves nothing, ’cept that you both put old women to shame who gossip in chimney corners.

MARTIN: Gabe, I can see why Sol doesn’t smoke since he’s around tobacco all day.

SOLOMON: Smoke. You two are smoke, given your forges, your cigars, your pipes, and your color.

GABRIEL: Smoking never killed anybody that I know of, but I can’t say that about whiskey. Hard drink ain’t easy on the mind or the body. Whiskey is slow poison.

SOLOMON: So what? I’m in no hurry. (Laughs.)

GABRIEL: And to think Mama named you Solomon.

MARTIN: Give him time and he’ll outgrow it like we did—if he ever grows up.

GABRIEL: I don’t know about that. Sow and act and reap a habit, as the saying goes.

SOLOMON: That holds true only for you two drunks. Maybe I had a few last night, but I’m sober now. You stay drunk on books. I read you both like an open one.

MARTIN: Yeah, books are intoxicating—especially nature’s.

GABRIEL: And I’ll proudly admit that I stay high on the Good Book.

SOLOMON: Life is good enough for me. But you’ll never go to bed alone. And burning the midnight oil makes you both smell of the lamp. (Laughs.)

MARTIN: That’s better than smelling of the jug or the bottle. (Pause.) I hope the old man doesn’t find out about the still, since he thinks whiskey is distilled damnation.

SOLOMON: He’ll never find the still. It couldn’t be hid any better than if it was in the belly of a whale. I’d like to drink to Pa’s health. (Laughs.)

GABRIEL: Show some respect, Sol.

MARTIN: And it must be a good still, knowing Jack as I do.

SOLOMON: Yeah. It’s a damn fine one. Jack’s liquor could make a cat, or even a dead man speak. Jack is a master of all trades, and soon he and I will be trading in whiskey turning corn into silver..

GABRIEL: That’s Jack! (Pause.) So Sol, your dry run last night turned into a wet one, after all. That’s what your sweating is showing. (Laughs.) Jack’s motives are like wheels within wheels. And you’re more than wet behind the ears when it comes to understanding ’em. In fact, you may be all wet about Jack.

SOLOMON: How can you say that about a man who taught you smithing? What was his motive for doing that?

GABRIEL: Yeah, I guess I am beholding to Jack for his help.

SOLOMON: His help? (Laughs.) Gabe, ain’t you something? Jack admires you, and yet you don’t like him. You truly take the cake.

GABRIEL: Being admired by a jackass is no compliment.

MARTIN: (To Solomon.) Gabe’s skills now put Jack’s in the shade. Jack’s trying to compensate by hiring the finest smiths in Virginia.

SOLOMON: That ain’t how I see it. Nobody can hold a candle to Jack when it comes to smithing. Everything he forges is A-one quality, second to none. (Pause.) Shade! I wish we had some shade here. (He strips off his shirt and puts it on the table.) The women won’t be arriving for a few more minutes.

MARTIN: So you’re preparing to give Lily the shirt off your back, is that it?

SOLOMON: Yeah, sure, that’s it. (Pause.) Jack said they’d be arriving by twelve-thirty, in time for them to get things ready for the picnic.

MARTIN: Yeah, Sol, you don’t want to disrespect this July fourth by an act of indecency. But I think our clothing might already do that.

GABRIEL: C’mon, Martin. Who are you trying to impress? Clothes don’t make the man, but I guess they do improve the attitude in your case. We’re better clothed and shod than most slaves in Virginia. Thanks to our old man. But I think our servitude truly desecrates the meaning of this day. Maybe one day soon we’ll have a real day to celebrate.

SOLOMON: That will happen only if we win the Prize.

MARTIN: And we may have to go for it if things don’t change.

GABRIEL: Yeah, things will change—change for the worse.

MARTIN: I suppose you’re right. White people nowadays are capable of anything.

GABRIEL: Still, we’re lucky to have the old man as our Pa. Ain’t that a strange thing to say about a slaveholder?

MARTIN: Yeah, maybe.

SOLOMON: And maybe not.

GABRIEL: He sent us to school, allowed us to build this church and has given each of us some freedom.

SOLOMON: And today, of course, he is providing this spread and allowing us to enjoy it away from the eyes of the whites. Thank the Lord for small favors.

MARTIN: Amen. Pa sure is generous in providing us with things that were purchased with the proceeds of our labor. What’s gained without sweat, is given away without regret—especially since the giving reminds us that we’re still under his thumb.

GABRIEL: Martin, your cynicism is truly your trademark. But in light of the recent events in France and Haiti, I wonder if we are really free of being eyeballed today.

MARTIN: A spy or two is a distinct possibility. So it wouldn’t hurt to keep our eyes peeled.

SOLOMON: Spied on? By who? We all know about Pa’s health and we all know about Ryan. He’d be the first one to notify us if there are any unwelcome guests on the plantation. He’s one of us.

GABRIEL: Yeah, if he’s awake. And Pa’s rarely up and about these days. Besides, he trusts us. Poor Pa, you can’t say he’s living. Languishing is more like it.

SOLOMON: Wasting away day by day, becoming a shadow of his old self.

GABRIEL: And when his borrowed time expires, he’ll be right with God and so will we because we’ll be free.

MARTIN: I hope you’re right. But I have my doubts.

GABRIEL: I guess in my heart of hearts, I do as well. But we could be free, thanks to Mist John Wesley. I remember when Pa and Uncle Mosby took us to Richmond to hear him. After that, these two bachelors quickly got married to the Methodist religion. Everyone was spellbound with the preacher’s words, and the way in which he expressed them. It’s said he neither feared nor flattered anyone. He was quite a man.

MARTIN: Yeah, and he truly waxed eloquent that day as he spoke plain truth to plain people saying that there is no holiness but social holiness. He said that