GCG
Does anyone know the name Gabriel Prosser?
GDG
My conscience says he’s the one that history missed.
GCG
A blacksmith by trade up at Brookfield Plantation,
GDG
A Henrico County slave born of owner Thomas.
GCG
If you listen closely you’ll hear the words perfect,
GDG
The Caribbean uprising caught fire in this land.
GCG
Up and down the James River, Pamunky and Appomattox,
GDG
Tobacco soil gone bad deferred a movement for the blacks.
GCG
Nine years before, down in Santo Domingo,
GDG
Slaves refused to submit and took the right of all men.
GCG
Virginia whites got nervous and hired more militias,
GDG
As blacks inspired, plotted and passed on their plans.
GCG
Mister Prosser’s Gabriel was smart as he was strong,
GDG
A head of keloid scars and a mind of knowing right and wrong.
GDG
Voted general at twenty-four in the year of eighteen-hundred,
GDG
Haunted by the hymns and wailing of his fellow slaves.
GCG
Now does anyone know the name Gabriel Prosser?
GDG
My conscience says he’s the one that history missed.
GCG
A blacksmith by trade up at Brookfield Plantation,
GDG
A Henrico County slave born of owner Thomas.
GCG
It was on an August night just North of Richmond, Virginia,
GDG
Gabriel’s men gathered as their owners they slept.
GCG
Some would burn the Capital to distract residents and masters,
GDG
While others took the city and freed the convicts.
GCG
Well the whites they knew nothing, never seen what could hit ‘em,
GDG
Nothing like this could happen to their carefree black men.
GCG
But think about freedom, now think about slavery.
GDG
Blacks armed themselves with muskets and homemade bayonets.
GCG
With a white flag on the Capital, all blacks they would rise.
GDG
All whites spared, would lose but an arm.
GDG
You’re a coward if you own men for profit and greed,
GDG
You’re the coward of all and for all you must bleed.
GCG
Now does anyone know the name Gabriel Prosser?
GDG
My conscience says he’s the one that history missed.
GCG
A blacksmith by trade up at Brookfield Plantation,
GDG
A Henrico County slave born of owner Thomas.
GCG
Pharaoh and Tom ratted out Gabriel Prosser,
GDG
Their owner was Mosby, and neighbor of him.
GCG
They say the sky seemed seized with rain and lightning,
GDG
On the night of August thirtieth one could see nor stand.
GCG
The militias’ let loose to hunt Gabriel Prosser,
GDG
Who took to the swamps as they imprisoned his men.
GCG
Flagged a boat whose captain was a Methodist preacher,
GDG
But a traitor slave turned him in in the end.
GCG
They hung Gabriel down at Broad and 15th Street,
GDG
Lord he would not give a word up on his men.
GCG
But he took that noose and he took it with honor,
GDG
He’s buried beneath a lot of parked cars, now, and pavement.
GCG
There’s no monument, there’s no stone here to see him,
GDG
Just black asphalt planked by high-rise hospital chains.
GCG
If I had it my way we’d see memorials climbin',
GDG
To a true and honest hero, Prosser’s Gabriel.
GCG
Now does anyone know the name Gabriel Prosser?
GDG
My conscience says he’s the one that history missed.
GCG
A blacksmith by trade up at Brookfield Plantation,
GDG
A Henrico County slave born of owner Thomas.