Gabriel

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or Gabriel Prosser

born c. 1775, near Richmond, Va.

died September 1800, Richmond, Va., U.S.

American slave who planned the first slave rebellion in U.S. history.

Born to an African-born mother, he grew up as the slave of Thomas H. Prosser. In 1800 the deeply religious Gabriel planned a slave insurrection to create an independent slave state in Virginia with himself as king. Intending to attack Richmond and kill all whites except Frenchmen, Methodists, and Quakers, he assembled 1,000 slaves outside the city on August 30, but a violent rainstorm washed out bridges and scattered the rebels. Before they could reassemble, Gov. James Monroe learned of the plot and ordered out the state militia. Gabriel and 34 others were arrested, tried, and hanged.

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Gabriel - In the Bible and the Qur'an, one of the archangels.

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Gabriel - American bondsman who planned the first major slave rebellion in U.S. history (Aug. 30, 1800). His abortive revolt greatly increased the whites' fear of the slave population throughout the South.

Faure, Gabriel - composer whose refined and gentle music influenced the course of modern French music.

Tarde, Gabriel - French sociologist and criminologist who was one of the most versatile social scientists of his time. His theory of social interaction ("intermental activity") emphasized the individual in an aggregate of persons and brought Tarde into conflict with Emile Durkheim, who viewed society as a collective unity.

Gabriel - in the Bible and the Qur'an, one of the archangels. Gabriel was the heavenly messenger sent to Daniel to explain the vision of the ram and the he-goat and to communicate the prediction of the Seventy Weeks. He was also employed to announce the birth of John the Baptist to Zechariah and to announce the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. It is because he stood in the divine presence that both ...

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel - English painter and poet who helped found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of painters treating religious, moral, and medieval subjects in a nonacademic manner. Dante Gabriel was the most illustrious member of the Rossetti family.

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