Samuel Parsons (1750-1820): A Quaker in the Web of Gabriel's Conspiracy

In the fifteen years after the American Revolution, Virginian Quakers worked for small gains in securing freedom and liberty for all. As those efforts fell short, a few hundred, maybe a few thousand, enslaved men conspired to overthrow slavery, starting in Richmond Virginia. In the trial following the collapse of the plan, one informant had said that Quakers were to be spared from the potential violence of the rebellion. Up to now, the position Quakers had in the rebel's community has been largely overlooked by historians. As Virginia Quakers transformed their Society into an antislavery body, their actions affected the network of enslaved families of wider Richmond. Samuel Parsons, a birthright Quaker inherited people, and as guardian and executor, had at least a couple of dozen enslaved people under his care for decades. Through his life story, some of the triumphs, and disappointments, of early Quaker antislavery efforts can be studied.