History and Denmark Vesey

     Denmark Vesey  & The Spirit of
Freedom Monument

 

Portrait of Denmark Vesey, Gailliard auditorium, Charleston, South Carolina

 

1767-1822

Nationality-American      Occupation-  Carpenter, Freedom fighter

                                               Narrative Essay

       Denmark Vesey (1767-1822), an African American who fought to liberate his people from slavery, planned an abortive slave insurrection.

Denmark Vesey, whose original name was Telemanque, was born in West Africa. As a youth, he was captured, sold as a slave, and brought to America. In 1781 he came to the attention of a slaver, Capt. Vesey, who was "struck with the beauty, alertness, and intelligence" of the boy. Vesey, a resident of Charleston, S.C., acquired the boy. The captain had "no occasion to repent" his purchase of Denmark, who "proved for 20 years a most faithful slave."

In 1800 Vesey won a $1,500 lottery prize, with which he purchased his freedom and opened a carpentry shop. Soon this highly skilled artisan became "distinguished for [his] great strength and activity. Among his color he was always looked up to with awe and respect" by both black and white Americans. He acquired property and became prosperous.

Nevertheless, Vesey was not content with his relatively successful life. He hated slavery and slaveholders. This brilliant man versed himself in all the available antislavery arguments and spoke out against the abuse and exploitation of his own people.

 

 Believing in equality for everyone and vowing never to rest until his people were free, he became the political provocateur, agitating and moving his brethren to resist their enslavement.Selecting a cadre of exceptional lieutenants, Vesey began organizing the black community in and around Charleston to revolt. He developed a very sophisticated scheme to carry out his plan. The conspiracy included over 9,000 slaves and "free" blacks in Charleston and on the neighboring plantations.

The revolt, which was scheduled to occur on July 14, 1822, was betrayed before it could be put into effect. As rumors of the plot spread, Charleston was thrown into a panic. Leaders of the plot were rounded up. Vesey and 46 other were condemned, and even four whites were implicated in the revolt. On June 23 Vesey was hanged on the gallows for plotting to overthrow slavery.

After careful examination of the historical record, the judgment of Sterling Stuckey remains valid: "Vesey's example must be regarded as one of the most courageous ever to threaten the racist foundations of America.... He stands today, as he stood yesterday ... as an awesome projection of the possibilities for militant action on the part of a people who have for centuries been made to bow down in fear."

 

      On Thursday, the 27th, (June) Denmark Vesey, a free black man, was brought before the court for trial; (assisted by his counsel, G.W. Cross, Esq.)

These facts of his guilt the journals of the court will disclose - that no man can be proved to have spoken of or urged the insurrection prior to himself.

All the channels of communication and intelligence are traced back to him. His house was the place appointed for the secret meetings of the conspirators, at which he was invariably a leading and influential member; animating and encouraging the timid, by the hopes and prospects of success; removing the scruples of the religious, by the grossest prostitution and perversion of the sacred oracles, and inflaming and confirming the resolute, by all the savage fascinations of blood and booty.

The peculiar circumstances of guilt, which confer a distinction on his case, will be found narrated in the confession of Rolla, Monday Gell, Frank, and Jesse, in the appendix. He was sentenced for execution on the 2nd of July.

Additionally, four white men were tried and convicted of having encouraged the revolt, and were fined and imprisoned for their part.

 

 

    Denmark Vesey: a New Verdict2005 Copyright ( c) Nation

    City Hall and the Denmark Vesey Crisis , 2005, by Michael P. Johnson,
     Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University

[Welcome] [History and Denmark Vesey] [Call For Sculptors Competition] [Make A Contribution] [About Us] [News]