Gabriel, who often for the sake of convenience is mistakenly referred to as Prosser, was the leader of an unsuccessful slave revolt in Richmond, Virginia in 1800. Born into slavery around 1775, Gabriel was the chattel of Thomas H. Prosser of Henrico County, Virginia. Little is known of his life before the revolt that catapulted him into notoriety. Gabriel’s two brothers, Solomon and Martin and his wife, Nanny, were all owned by Thomas Prosser, and all participated in the insurrection.
At the time of the insurrection, Gabriel was twenty-four years old, six feet two inches tall, literate, and a blacksmith by trade. He was described by a contemporary as “a fellow of courage and intellect above his rank in life.” With the help of other slaves including Jack Bowler and George Smith, he devised a plan to seize control of Richmond by killing all of the whites (except the Methodists, Quakers and Frenchmen) and then establishing a Kingdom of Virginia with himself as monarch.
Gabriel and the other revolt leaders were probably influenced by the American Revolution and more recently the French and Haitian Revolutions with their rhetoric of freedom, equality and brotherhood. In the months prior to the revolt, he recruited hundreds of supporters and organized them into military units. Although Virginia authorities never determined the extent of the revolt, they estimated that several thousand planned to participate including many who were to be armed with swords and pikes made from farm tools by slave blacksmiths.
Gabriel planned to initiate the insurrection on the night of August 30, 1800. However, earlier in the day two slaves who wanted to protect their masters betrayed the plot to Virginia authorities. Governor James Monroe alerted the militia. A rainstorm prevented the army from assembling outside Richmond thereby delaying the uprising by 24 hours and giving the militia crucial time to prepare a defense of the city. Realizing their plan had been discovered, Gabriel and his co-conspirators dispersed into the countryside. About 35 leaders were captured and executed but Gabriel was able to escape to Norfolk where he was betrayed by other enslaved people for the reward. He was captured on September 25 and returned to Richmond where he was tried and found guilty on October 6 for his role in the abortive uprising. He was executed on October 7, 1800.
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All this talk about guys thinking about the Roman Empire all the time and I'm over here regularly spiralling over the Sino-Soviet split
I think about the collapse of the USSR once every few weeks when I wistfully daydream about how accepting and socially cohesive that society would probably be if it still existed today
comrade I do it every day. its hard to have a normal conversation IRL about food or some shit while im constantly thinking about the Soviet Union.
I wonder if the socialist bloc back then led by USSR could've saved the world in time
From what I read the world is irreversibly fucked from the future effects of climate change that have yet to happen unless some miracle breakthrough technology comes through
Like even if the imperial core collapsed today it's apparently already too late to stop billions from having to relocate and suffer
I think that everytime I work outside and see all the completely dysfunctional orgs trying their best against odds they can't beat. The big orgs become businesses seeking profit, the little ones can only do so much. So much dies, and no one can stand up to the capitalist powers causing all of it. At least with the USSR, we had a chance. Liberalism wasn't the end-all-be-all. Someone was actively calling out and combating the shit the US tried to pull. The soviets would have built an insanely good renewable energy base while slowly transitioning from gas and coal. It would have kept the businesses somewhat in line. The US would have to have been more eco friendly just because it would look bad if the Soviets got one over the USA. The world would undoubtedly be a far better place if the USSR still existed, even revisionist, but especially if it wasn't.
The environmentalist one-up-manship of the "Green Race" would probably have limited the impacts of global climate change to a fraction of what we are now facing.
The US would have been far harsher on the global south than usual to extract the rare minerals, so thats not fun.
I do not doubt that if the USSR was still around, Afghanistan would be a stable, secular republic, Iraq would still be functioning, they would've been unable to kill gaddaffi, and Yugoslavia would not have gone to shit like it did. Nevermind all the rest of the things it would have fixed in science and social norms, just the geopolitical impact alone would have saved hundreds of millions.
A centrally planned economy would actually be able to take effective action, ramp up to war production, be proactive.
same
But what if the 1920 assault on Warsaw had worked?