The thesis of Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, is to allow the reader to learn in detail about Gabriel’s rebellion. The author Douglas R. Egerton makes this clear throughout the whole book and used many sources to support his thesis and writing. He explains in great detail about the events that led up to the rebellion, during the rebellion, and after the rebellion. He did a great job with writing this book and allowing it to flow together. The author, Douglas R. Egerton, has his M.A. and Ph.D. from Georgetown University. His grandparents were slaveholders and believed that slaves were property. He became interested in race relations because of grandparents and the television series “Roots”. He specifically concentrates on race relations in the American South. He is now a history professor at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. He teaches many different courses including World Civilization, Antebellum America, Race and Ethnicity in Early America. He has written many books that include Rebels, Reformers, and Revolutionaries in 2002 and He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey in 1999. Egerton did a great job making sure …show more content…
They include a map of Richmond, where the activity occurred, and the Brookfield Plantation. These are great visuals for the reader to refer back to when they come across these in the reading. Throughout the narrative Egerton used footnotes. When there was a sentence he wanted to go into greater detail about he would footnote the sentence. Then, in the back of the book, he had the footnotes in order by chapter and page number. He also included a bibliography and index. The bibliography had all the sources he used while writing this book. At the very end is where the index is located. It includes every person, place, or thing mentioned in the book. This makes it easier for the reader to refer back to the book without searching through it