Nine people some white, some black told supervisors they want Gabriel's Rebellion mentioned on the obelisk. Nobody spoke in opposition. The board then voted not to include any reference to the rebellion. Supervisor Calvin B. Taylor, the board's other black member, said, To erect a monument in honor of a group of people who planned to kill and destroy is wrong, even if the cause is just. As someone in the audience pointed out, a Virginian named George Washington fought violently for a just cause.
Historians call it the American Revolution.
Personally, I've never felt that Southerners who fought in the War Between the States were fighting for a just cause. They believed, among other things, that individual states should decide for themselves whether it was legal to enslave people. Slavery is absolutely wrong. Gabriel Prosser knew in 1800 that Virginia slaves had no chance of gaining their freedom without a violent rebellion. They failed in their attempt, but their cause was just.