Enslaved people sometimes betrayed planned rebellions to their captors

Evidence

Gabriel, a twenty-four-year-old enslaved blacksmith held captive on a forced labor camp run by Thomas Prosser in Henrico County, Virginia, organizes an extensively planned rebellion. After other enslaved people share details of his plot, Gabriel’s Rebellion is thwarted. He is later tried, found guilty, and hanged. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 516

Categorization

• QUESTION: What motivated the enslaved people who betrayed Gabriel’s plot? This detail complicates a simple slave-resistance narrative worth probing.
• XREF: connects to: Resistance fighters endured torture and chose death over betraying their comrades — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1639