Prossers Gabriel

Tim Barry

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