This is the first part of a two-part course. The second part will be presented on August 17.

Course Overview: The 1864 photo of USCT Pvt. Hubbard Pryor became a national recruitment tool for the U.S. Army and Black male pride in the fight for Emancipation. Then it vanished from memory, only to resurface as a depiction of Gabriel, the enslaved Virginia blacksmith who led a well-organized, if thwarted large-scale rebellion more than 60 years before. What can we learn from the stories of these two men?

Public historian and American Civil War Museum education manager, Ana Edwards, explores the lives of these men and the legacy of the image used to represent both these men who challenged slavery — and its ongoing use in public history and social justice activities today.

Session 1, August 10:
We will introduce you to Gabriel’s Rebellion, the most politically significant attempted slave rebellion in Virginia’s 18th-century history, the fate of its participants and how it consistently transcended attempts to erase it from public memory — black and white. Sandwiched as it was between the American, French, and the Haitian revolutions, the Virginia insurrection embodied the deepest fears of the US slavocracy and the persistent strivings for abolition in a democratic republic.

To register for this free event, copy and paste this link into your browser: https://roundtable.org/class/live/history/one-image-two-freedom-fighters