The new U.S. Constitution appears to have bridged all the disagreements among the various states, but the right of the federal government to impose direct taxation remains untested.

Following the Revolutionary War, political leaders had reduced restrictions on enslaved people, permitting them to travel and meet freely on evenings and weekends; they establish regular meeting places to socialize and worship.

The Constitution has done nothing to address the institution of slavery itself, however, and the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 creates a huge demand for slaves in the Southern states.

Plantation owners hire out skilled slaves, who earn a small wage and gain the opportunity to travel beyond their community, forming kinships and information networks across the state.

Legislators pass laws to allow owners to free slaves if they wish.

Three rebellions occur during this era, two of which—the Whiskey Rebellion and Fries' Rebellion, both taking place in Pennsylvania—are directed against federal taxation.

The first instance involves resistance to a tax on liquor; the second is a revolt against property tax intended to fund what becomes known as the American-French Quasi War of 1798-1800.

The third, Gabriel's Rebellion, is the first major slave rebellion in United States history and the second in the Western Hemisphere, preceded by the ongoing revolt of Toussaint L'Ouverture on the island of Hispaniola.

Quakers, Methodists, and other religious groups have begun to form abolition societies across Virginia.

In Richmond, where over ten percent of the black population is free, Gabriel, a skilled blacksmith born circa 1775 to an African-born mother, grows up as the slave of Thomas H. Prosser.

He becomes a literate and deeply religious man, strongly influenced by biblical example.

Probably, he is also influenced by the ideals of the American Revolution and, possibly, by Toussaint L'Ouverture's revolt (1793-1803) in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present Haiti).

In the spring and summer of 1800, Gabriel lays plans for a slave insurrection supposedly aimed at creating an independent black state in Virginia with himself as king.

He plans a three-pronged attack on Richmond, Virginia, that will seize the arsenal, take the powder house, and allegedly kill all whites except Frenchmen, Methodists, and Quakers.

His primary goal, however, is the destruction of the economic hegemony of the “merchants”, the only whites Gabriel ever identifies as his enemies.

Slaves from Caroline, Hanover, and northern Henrico counties are to meet just north of Brook Bridge on Brook Turnpike.

Once the army assembles, Gabriel's men are to kill the plantation owners in the neighborhood to insure the secrecy of the plot.

The forces are to then proceed to Richmond where they expect to meet fellow troops from Petersburg.

As a united group, they will divide with separate missions.

One band is to secure Mayo's Bridge and set fire to Rocketts, a warehouse district in Richmond, as a diversion.

A second band is to seize the State capital, capture Governor James Monroe and persuade him to accept their demands.

When the success of their plan circulates, other slaves, white artisans, freemen, religious supporters and French sympathizers are expected to join the rebels under the white flag of freedom.

Wind of the plot may have early reached Monroe, for in a letter to Thomas Jefferson dated April 22 he refers to ”fears of a negro insurrection”.

Throughout the spring, the plotters forge crude swords and bayonets as well as about 500.

Each Sunday, Gabriel enters Richmond, impressing the city's features upon his mind and paying particular attention to the location of arms and ammunition.

Gabriel assembles an army of a thousand slaves (higher estimates range from two thousand to fifty thousand) six miles (nine point five kilometers) outside Richmond on the night of August 30, 1800, but an unusually violent rainstorm washes out bridges and inundates roads, aborting the revolt.

Governor Monroe, informed of the plot by the owner of two talkative slaves, orders out the state militia before the rebel forces can be reassembled for an attack the following night.

Gabriel escapes down the Chickahominy River and eventually to Norfolk.

Gabriel, betrayed and captured on September 23, is imprisoned with about 34 of his companions who are subsequently tried and sentenced to hang on October 7, 1800; Gabriel is the last to be executed. (Four of the condemned slaves had escaped from prison, one had committed suicide in prison, and ten are reprieved and banished.)

Gabriel's abortive revolt greatly increases the whites' fear of the slave population throughout the South.

The militia increases its surveillance, authorities restrict slave travel and communication, abolition societies cease operations in Virginia, and free blacks are ordered to leave the state within six months or risk re-enslavement.