Circumstances changed, however, and the owner sold Nat. Subsequent and more cruel owners failed to keep the long-ago promise of freedom, a betrayal that only added to Nat's fury and frustration toward all white people.
Free blacks enjoyed relative autonomy compared to slaves, yet they still faced many restrictions designed to keep them subordinate to white people. Free blacks could not vote, serve on juries, or use the same public facilities as white people. In most states, free blacks were prohibited from testifying against whites in court and from marrying or engaging in sexual relations with whites. Despite all these constraints, a number of free blacks managed to save money, accumulate property, and enjoy respectable positions within their communities. In some cases, these "achievements" did little to stem the growing urge to violently resist white society in the South. The slave Gabriel Prosser, the free black Denmark Vesey, and the slave Nat Turner all led slave revolts in the nineteenth century.
Prosser's revolt. On August 30, 1800, under the leadership of Gabriel Prosser, a group of slaves made plans to attack their owners and invade Richmond, Virginia. Meeting secretly with his followers under the guise of funerals and other religious gatherings, Prosser planned for several hundred men to make a surprise attack at midnight.
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