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Sidbury focuses on the history and perspectives of enslaved blacks to develop 'Gabriel's Virginia' as a counterpoint to 'Jeffersonian Virginia.'
List of contents
Introduction; Acknowledgments; Prologue: from blacks in Virginia to black Virginians; 1. The emergence of racial consciousness in eighteenth-century Virginia; Part I. Cultural Progress: Creolization, Appropriation, and Collective Identity in Gabriel's Virginia: 2. Forging an oppositional culture: Gabriel's conspiracy and the process of cultural appropriation; 3. Individualism, community, and identity in Gabriel's conspiracy; 4. Making sense of Gabriel's conspiracy: immediate responses to the conspiracy; Part II. Social Practice: Urbanization, Commercialization, and Identity in the Daily Life of Gabriel's Richmond: 5. The growth of early Richmond; 6. Labor, race, and identity in early Richmond; 7. Race and constructions of gender in early Richmond; Epilogue: Gabriel and Richmond in historical and fictional time; 8. Gabriel's Conspiracy in memory and fiction; Appendix; Notes.
Summary
During the summer of 1800, slaves in Richmond conspired to overthrow slavery. This book uses Gabriel's Conspiracy to expose the processes through which Virginians of African descent built an oppositional culture. Sidbury also portrays the multiple, sometimes conflicting, senses of identity that emerged among the residents.
