Come August Come Freedom - The Bellows, The Gallows & The Black General Gabriel

Come August Come Freedom – The Bellows, The Gallows & The Black General Gabriel

Richmond author Gigi Amateau discusses her latest book, Come August Come Freedom. This young adult historical novel provides the backdrop for discussing the origins, implications and process of telling the story of Gabriel's Rebellion though the perspectives of the women in Gabriel's life. Gabriel, an enslaved blacksmith, was the last of 26 freedom-fighter conspirators executed, and the last of many hung on the city gallows on the site of Richmond's African Burial Ground. Raising the story of Gabriel's rebellion and the visibility of Black history in Richmond for their intrinsic roles in the history of Richmond, of Virginia's role in the earliest decades of the US as a nation is an important dynamic for people who claim an American identity. The intimacy with which this story is told allows the reader to imagine this place in those times, and the struggles of those people in these times. Personal and political.