This was a short response paper
written after reading this book about Denmark Vesey and his failed
plot to launch a slave rebellion in Charleston in the early 1800's.
The fallout of Vesey's plot changed Charleston radically.
In a time when revolution swept both Old World and New, it should
have been no surprise that eighteenth century Charleston would
find revolution fermenting among its slave population. In
his book "He Shall Go Out Free", Douglas Egerton describes
the life of Denmark Vesey, a freed slave in Charleston, who held
a deep and thinly-veiled hatred of slavery and the city’s ruling
elite, and was best known for leading a failed attempt at revolt
which cost his life. However, Egerton argues one must look
beyond the span of Vesey’s lifetime to best understand his impact
upon the history of the city.
ORIGINS
Like most slaves, much about Vesey's early years, including his
exact age, family, and nationality, is unknown. The first
thing we know about his life was his purchase as a teenager in
1781 from St. Thomas Island, a Dutch colony in the Caribbean,
by Joseph Vesey, a slave trader (3). After a short stint
as Vesey's cabin boy, he was sold on the island of Saint Domingue,
a French colony dominated by sugar plantations where slaves lived
short and brutal lives (17).
On Saint Domingue, he feigned epileptic seizures to force his
return as "damaged goods". Joseph Vesey put him
back to work as his cabin boy, as well as translating for slaves
(22). When the British evacuated Charleston in December
1782, Joseph Vesey moved his family to the city, bringing Denmark
along with him (26). Fluent in English and a quick learner,
he was soon busy helping run his owner’s import business, paying
taxes and picking up merchandise upon arrival at the city’s docks
(33).
Nearly twenty years after he arrived in Charleston, luck brought
Vesey his freedom. A winning lottery ticket in September
1799 netted him $1500, of which $600 bought his freedom (73).
However, his winnings were not enough to buy freedom for his wife,
Beck, and their children, and they remained in bondage (77).
CONSPIRACY
Denmark Vesey's opposition to slavery was by no means veiled,
and his inability to buy his family’s freedom only deepened his
resentment (77). He often aired his views in the waterfront
taverns that were frequented by lower-class whites and freed slaves
(100). An avid reader, he eagerly read anti-slavery tracts,
and followed newspaper accounts of the slave revolution in Saint
Domingue (100).
By Christmas of 1821, Vesey decided he had little to lose by challenging
the city's elite more directly. At the age of fifty-four,
he had lived well beyond average life expectancy for blacks, and
knew his time was running short (126). He told his close
friend Rolla, a slave of Governor Bennett, that they would have
to "rise up and fight the whites (131)."
Vesey began to build a network of supporters who would help recruit
and organize other slaves for his planned revolt. However,
he knew his rebels could not hold the city or force recognition
of their freedom. Instead, he planned for them to rise up
at night, killing many whites while they slept. In the ensuing
chaos, they would seize ships to sail to Haiti, where slaves had
revolted and established a free nation (132).
George Wilson, a blacksmith, had overheard discussions of the
plot, but refused to go along. On June 14, as the revolt
drew near, he told his owner, who informed authorities (161).
The next morning, as Vesey’s rebels began to mobilize, the city’s
streets were filled with militia. Governor Bennett convened
a tribunal to interrogate witnesses and conduct trials of the
conspirators (162). On June 20, an informant betrayed Vesey,
and he was arrested two days later. Within a week, the other
ringleaders were arrested and the plot collapsed (174).
Once in custody, Vesey's fate came swiftly. Intent on sending
a harsh message, Lionel Kennedy, the magistrate presiding over
the tribunal, told Vesey his execution was "a just and necessary
sacrifice, at the shrine of indulgent Justice (187)."
On the second day of July, Vesey and five others went to the gallows
and were hung. Their bodies were taken down, dismembered,
and disposed of without a funeral (190). In all, 101 slaves
faced trial for their roles the conspiracy, of which thirty-five,
including Vesey, went to the gallows, and thirty-seven were expelled
from the United States (200).
LEGACY
It was hoped Vesey’s death would snuff out the flame of rebellion.
Instead, Charleston sank even deeper into a state of cultural
and emotional siege, both from within by fear of their slaves,
and without by growing anti-slavery sentiments. Vesey's
plot fueled the passions of both sides of the issue, making it
difficult to hold a moderate position. Either one was for
keeping slaves on a tight leash, or one stood with the abolitionists
in the North.
One of those moderates was Governor Thomas Bennett. He could
never bring himself to admit that he was so hated by his slaves
that they intended to murder him in his sleep. He spent
generous sums trying to save Rolla, who was the first to be tried,
and who would go the gallows (185). Bennett post-trial pleas
for moderation were rebuffed by the Legislature. Having
failed to control both the Legislature and his household, Bennett's
political career was over (202).
A harsh backlash hit blacks, both free and slave alike.
Legislation required dress codes for urban slaves, who had become
accustomed to wearing second-hand finer clothing from their owners.
The city's white artisans who found it hard to compete with slaves
who "hired out" their services, saw this as an opportunity
to eliminate their competitors (215). While the leaders
of the African Methodist Episcopal church took no part in the
plot, they were run out of the state, and their church in Hampstead,
the city's free black section, was torn down (224). To control
outside influences, black sailors were jailed for the duration
of their time in port (216). Later, some of those sailors
would help smuggle in anti-slavery tracts of Vesey's speeches,
written by David Walker, a free black who fled the post-Vesey
backlash (225).
Reaction to Vesey's conspiracy outside of the southern slave states
was far more supportive, with many Northern newspapers defending
Vesey. The Boston Evening Gazette argued "nobody can
blame the servile part of the population for attempting to escape
from bondage (225)." Robert Morris, one of the first
black attorneys in Massachusetts, included Vesey and Nat Turner
as his heroes because their names were a "terror to oppressors."
Fiction writers with anti-slavery views included characters similar
to Vesey in their stories (226).
CONCLUSION
In his life, Denmark Vesey was virtually powerless member of Charleston’s
small society of free blacks in the years between the American
Revolution and Civil War. He spent years expressing his
disgust of slavery, and his one effort to strike back was quickly
rolled up and brutally eliminated. In light of this, there
is great irony in how Charleston, a city which fearlessly defied
kings and empires would live in fear not of invading armies and
attacking fleets, but at the shadow of Vesey’s failed revolt.
That one man’s memory could hold such power validates Egerton's
argument that Vesey was both an obscure and nearly powerless person,
as well a revolutionary figure whose legacy stood tall indeed.
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