ading documents like the Declaration of Independence, debates concerning the Missouri Compromise, and passages about the prophets Joshua and Zachariah in the Old Testament sustained his vision of freedom. In 1822, he and other freedmen gathered over 500 knives and daggers for an attack. They solicited over 9,000 freedmen and slaves to be involved in the attack. This would have been the largest slave uprising in the history of America. However, before Vesey and the freedmen could actually enact their planned insurrection in the summer of 1822, some slave informants told their owners of the revolt. Vesey's plans of freedom for Africans in slavery were demolished. As a direct result of the informants' actions, over a hundred arrests were made, including four whites who encouraged the revolt. Confessions gathered from several leaders arrested led to the capture and execution of Denmark Vesey later that year. Thirty-five followers were hung and another thirty-five rebels were sold to West Indian plantation owners. Gabriel ProsserGabriel Prosser born in 1776, was a slave child to the family owned by Thomas Henry Prosser of the Brookfield Plantation in Henrico County. As an adult, Gabriel Prosser would pronounce the cause of independence for himself and for all slaves. Unlike the vast majority of slaves, Gabriel had been educated in his youth. He became a blacksmith, a skill that gave him access to life beyond the plantation. In 1800, he began to lay plans to take the city of Richmond, Virginia, by force. He planned to invade Richmond, attack the armory, and arm his rebel slaves. By August of 1800, he had thousands of slaves enlisted and had stored up an armory of weapons, including guns. Two followers betrayed him and, on the day of his revolt, with over a thousand followers ready to attack Richmond, the bridges into Richmond had been destroyed in a flood. The state militia attacked him the next day and he and his followers were hanged. Altho...
