In the early 1800s, a young man named Gabriel organized a slave revolt in Virginia, which ultimately failed. Come August, Come Freedom is based on this true story, giving life to a man few know about today. The book includes excerpts from primary sources like letters and notices written at the time of these events. Mostly though, this is the story of Gabriel, his fierce love for freedom and his wife Nanny. He grew up as friends with a white master’s son who later proved a coward. Later Gabriel learned the blacksmith trade, like his father. He used this skill to make weapons for his failed revolt. Still, he came close to succeeding.
In many ways, this book is a love story. Gabriel’s relationship with Nanny is wonderfully portrayed here. Nanny is at the forefront of Gabriel’s thoughts from the moment they first meet in Richmond. Their love is strong and pure and serves as the emotional anchor of this book. Nanny is fierce in her own right, working alongside Gabriel on the Business (the code word used for the revolt). The book starts just after the end of the Revolutionary war and ends in 1804. This is an excellent book for anyone wanting to learn a bit more about this period in history. ( )

I listened to this novel because it was paired with My Name is Not Friday. This novel is based on a real man - Gabriel.

After the Revolutionary War, America had slaves. Gabriel and many others believed that slavery wouldn’t last long, that the United States believed in all men. He was a smart man and refused to be treated as less than. As the novel progresses, the author uses primary sources revealing what was reported as well as opinions given at the time. Gabriel’s early life is a guess by the author because little is know about individual slaves at this time period. After he becomes a blacksmith in Richmond, more information is uncovered.

Gabriel falls in love with another slave, Nanny. He proposes and has a plan to earn enough money to buy her and then eventually get his freedom and they can be a free family, raising their own kids. Gabriel lets his temper take control when a white man makes a racist comment about Nanny. Gabriel ends up on trial and, as a black man, has little hope of justice. He is a smart man and uses a method to avoid the death penalty and instead be marked. He does marry Nanny, but his passion for his own and his people’s humanity keep him from being content as another man’s property. He is famous for spearheading a revolt with thousands of slaves to attack the white man. Unfortunately, circumstances beyond his control keep the revolt from being successful.

This novel celebrates Gabriel’s courage, passion, love and leadership that could only end in despair at such a moment in American history. ( )

I love learning new things. Finding out about this period in US history was fascinating. ( )

1800 insurrection planned by a literate slave known as "Prosser's Gabriel" inspires a historical novel following one extraordinary man's life.

FROM AMAZON: Born a slave in 1776, Gabriel grows up capable and literate only to be taken from his mother and sent to the capital city as a blacksmith’s apprentice. There in the forge, a meeting point for many travelers and news bearers, his work awakens him to the sparks of resistance that are igniting into rebellion around the globe. When he is unable to both defend the love of his life and earn the money to buy her freedom, and with the news of Toussaint’s successful rebellion against Haiti’s slave masters ringing in his ears, Gabriel makes a decision: freedom for just his own family would not be enough.

Using the forge to turn pitchforks into swords and his eloquence to turn dreams into rallying cries, Gabriel plots a rebellion involving thousands of slaves, free blacks, poor whites, and Native Americans. To those excluded from the promise of the Revolution, Gabriel intends to bring liberty.

Interwoven with authentic original documents, this poignant, illuminating novel about a major figure in African-American history gives a personal face to a remarkable moment in our past that is little known but should be long remembered. ( )

The story of Gabriel, a slave born in 1777, is told for the first time in Amateau’s historical fiction tale of his life. Using imagined thoughts, along with primary source documents of the period. Amateau tells of slave life on a Virginia plantation during the height of the Revolutionary War.

Read the rest of my review on my blog "Should I read it or not?": http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/come-august-come-freedom-the-... ( )