Slave Rebellions in Virginia

Colonial Virginians recognized the potential of enslaved Virginians and indentured servants to seek freedom and/or revenge for their treatment.

Even former soldiers who had fought for Oliver Cromwell were a threat. A band of such soldiers, transported to Gloucester County as indentured servants after restoration of King Charles II in 1660, apparently conspired to rebel in 1663. The plot was betrayed, and:¹

Several bloody heads dangled from local chimney tops as a gruesome warning to others.

Indentured Servants in Colonial Virginia

Nat Turner

Slavery in Virginia

Links

• Encyclopedia Virginia
• Gabriel's Conspiracy (1800)
• Fugitive Data Portraits: Self-Emancipation in Virginia
• Library of Virginia
• Gabriel's Conspiracy Documents
• Like Mother, Like Son (UnCommonwealth blog, June 26, 2024)
• Proceedings of a Court of Oyer and Terminer in Henrico County, 6 October 1800
• Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative
• The Onancock Race Riot of 1907 (by Brooks Miles Barnes, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 92, Number 3, July, 1984)
• Writing About Slavery / Teaching About Slavery
• Zinn Education Project
• Nov. 7, 1841: The Creole Mutiny

References