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.On June 20 the other Ned, abondman of the widow Ingram, appeared before the bar.Will and severalother witnesses were fully heard and cross-examined by Samuel Marsh,Ned s counsel, but only five of the six justices believed him guilty.The oyerand terminer courts required unanimity, and so Ned was released.The fi-nal three slaves remaining in jail had but hearsay evidence appearingagainst them, [and] they [too were] discharged. 23During the same week that the Norfolk rebels were swept up, the con-spiracy finally collapsed at its source.Halifax authorities always had as-sumed a connection between the conspirators in Nottoway and the rivermenof neighboring counties.On May 1 Monroe directed that the plot and par-ties to it should be traced [upriver]. And the plot stopped at Booker s Ferry.A large number of slaves were taken up. Those seized were questioned at a considerable distance from each other so that they could not makeup a common story.Without prodding and without beatings several con-fessed a concurrent tale and, tragically, implicated each other in the pro-cess.24As had been the case two years earlier, one slave did more than implicatehis fellows in a moment of terror.Abram, a skilled bondman of WilliamSmith s, cynically determined to save his life by turning informer.By doingso, Abram illustrated an important point.Privileged slaves who stood onthe edge of freedom were often the most likely to instigate slave rebellions.As literate or hired bondmen, they were close enough to liberty to risk abold move that might succeed in shedding their quasi freedom and earnthem the real thing.But when faced with defeat, some privileged slaveseager to save what few privileges they possessed as well as their livespromised to turn informer. [Y]ou are hereby commanded to receive intoyour custody Abram, James Dejarnett instructed the jailor of HalifaxCounty, [h]e being a witness in behalf of the Commonwealth. Dejarnettassumed the jailor would take the appropriate precautions, although hefelt compelled to add that the above witness [should] be kept separatefrom the prisoners he is a witness against. 25On April 23, Sancho, appropriately enough, was the first rebel broughtbefore the bar.Abram took the stand and made clear that the Easter plotwas the work of the ferryman, who promised him that there were to be twocompanies of negroes collected and at Mr.Jameson s store on the nightbefore Easter.In case that evidence was not enough to guarantee Sancho sdeath, Bob, whose owner lived in nearby Charlotte County, sworethat Sancho claimed to have been involved in Gabriel s conspiracyThe Footsteps Die Out 139 but somehow had escaped the gallows.The justices wasted little time inarriving at a verdict of guilty.The court valued Sancho at an impressive$400 and sentenced him to swing three weeks hence, on Saturday, May 15.26In a curious turn of events, Phebe, a house servant of Daniel Price s, waspushed forward and formally charged with conspiracy and insurrection.She was the only woman to be so charged in either conspiracy.Abram spokeagainst her, but the court either found his testimony doubtful or, what ismore likely, lacked the will to hang a woman for a crime that had cost nowhite lives.Not that slave women were not habitually beaten, overworked,and sexually abused.But the sight of a woman kicking and twisting at theend of a noose was one that the squeamish Virginia gentry desperatelywished to avoid; their pretensions to being civilized men would be all butshattered.Phebe was released.27Their masquerade as moderate men intact, the justices could now ad-dress the matter at hand.On April 26, Absalom appeared in the courtroom.Several slaves identified him as one of Sancho s lieutenants, and WilliamMartin, one of his captors, testified that no threats or promises were usedto frighten him or persuade him to a confession. The justices conferredbriefly and sentenced him to die with his leader on May 15.Two other bond-men, Frank and Martin, received the same sentence.28On May 1, Abram, who had testified against three of the four men sen-tenced to death, confidently strode into the dingy courtroom.Perhaps hehad been led to believe that a fast trial and an even faster recommendationof clemency awaited him.But the testimony against him demonstrated thathis involvement in the plot was far deeper than what he had led his captorsto believe.Bob swore that Abram had actively recruited around Halifaxand that he intended to kill his master William Smith on the fryday nightbefore Easter. Following the murder, he was to join the other conspiratorsat the Seven Islands. Robin added that Abram routinely went over theriver Stanton to speak about the business.Placed upon the scales of whitejustice, these damning words outweighed any vague promises that JamesDejarnett had made to a mere slave.To his horror, Abram heard a finding ofguilty pronounced
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