On July 2, 1822, Denmark Vesey and five co-conspirators were hanged outside Charleston, South Carolina. They had been convicted of attempting to carry out the largest slave rebellion in the history of the United States.

1. MURPHY BROWNE (Abena Agbetu) Copyright © by Murphy Browne
2015
“On July 2, 1822, Denmark Vesey and five co-conspirators were hanged in a
desolate marsh outside Charleston, South Carolina. They had been betrayed by
black informers during their attempt to set in motion the largest slave
rebellion in the history of the United States - an effort astonishing in its
level of organization and support. Nine thousand slaves, armed with stolen
munitions and manufactured weapons, were to converge on Charleston, raze the
city, seize the government arsenal, and murder the entire white population,
sparing only the ship captains who would carry Vesey and his followers to Haiti
or Africa.“
From "Denmark Vesey: The Buried History of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and
the Man Who Led It" published in 2000 by David Robertson
Denmark Vesey was born either on the African continent or on the Caribbean
island of St. Thomas in the Danish Virgin Islands which was colonized by White
men and women from Denmark (1666-1917.) Denmark Vesey was 14 years old when he
was bought by White Bermudan slave trader Joseph Vesey. The Africans were
considered as much cargo as the lumber, rum, gin, molasses, sugar and meat that
Joseph Vesey traded. Vesey captained a ship travelling to the slave markets in
New York, South Carolina and Virginia, the Caribbean islands Barbados, Bermuda,
Jamaica, Martinique, St. Croix, St. Kitts, St. Thomas and along the coast of
West Africa to Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. In 1781 Vesey
transported 390 Africans from the Danish Virgin Islands to Cape Français, Haiti
and among his cargo was Telemaque a 14 year old boy he had bought in St. Thomas.
In the 1999 published book "Denmark Vesey: The Buried History of America's
Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It" White American author David
Robertson writes: “Telemaque was sent away to chop sugarcane twelve hours a day
under a tropical sun, presumptively for the rest of his life. Captain Vesey
returned to the Virgin Islands to pick up another load of slaves. About three
months later, however, when the captain again returned to Cape Français in 1781,
he was confronted by an angry plantation owner. Telemaque had proved totally
unsuitable for work in the sugar fields, and had suffered epileptic fits. A
French physician confirmed the diagnosis, although never again in his life would
Denmark Vesey display the slightest symptoms of epilepsy.“ The enslaved African
boy Telemaque was returned to Joseph Vesey who refunded the purchase price of
the epileptic boy who was unfit for cutting cane on a sugar plantation in Haiti.
Vesey took the boy with him renamed him Denmark Vesey and put him to work as a
domestic slave on his ship and in his home. Having made his fortune in the slave
trade (buying and selling Africans) Joseph Vesey retired from the sea in 1783,
two years after he bought Denmark Vesey and settled in Charleston, South
Carolina.
Denmark Vesey at 16 began to learn the carpentry trade and was sent out to work
by his enslaver the retired slave ship captain Joseph Vesey. Some skilled
enslaved Africans who were hired out by their enslavers were allowed to keep
part of their earnings. Several Africans were able to buy their freedom by
saving the money they earned when they were hired out. On December 9, 1899
Denmark Vesey bought a lottery ticket in the East Bay Street Lottery and won
$1500.00. In January 1800 Vesey bought his freedom for $600.00 and after 33
years as an enslaved person he was at last a free man. Vesey continued to work
as a carpenter and as a free man could keep all his wages. He bought a house at
20 Bull Street “within three blocks of the private residences of both the
governor of South Carolina and the mayor of Charleston.“ Vesey as a free man
also began attending the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston and by
1817 “began organizing the largest slave revolt in U.S. history.“ The African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston was founded by free Africans in the
city as “a mass protest against the institutional inequality of Charleston“s
white churches.“ Enslaved Africans, who were allowed the time on Sundays to
worship by their enslavers, also attended the African Methodist Episcopal Church
in Charleston. In the biography "Denmark Vesey: The Buried History of America's
Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It" David Robertson explains that:
“Vesey seized upon the structure of the African church by 1817 as the means of

2. organizing and recruiting for his coming revolt; sixteen members of his
conspiracy were hanged and four of his eight principal lieutenants in the
planned 1822 revolt were later identified as former members of the A.M.E.
church.”
As a free man who owned his home and was reasonably prosperous for someone of
his station it was a shock to White people in Charleston that Vesey at 55 years
old would lead a plot to end slavery. On June 28, 1822 at the trial of Denmark
Vesey the judge remarked: ”It is difficult to imagine what infatuation could
have prompted you to attempt an enterprise so wild and visionary. You were a
free man; were comparatively wealthy; and enjoyed every comfort, compatible with
your situation. You had therefore much to risk, and little to gain. From your
age and experience you ought to have known, that success was impracticable.”
Vesey as a free African man was at rick of being sold as long as slavery was an
American institution. Free Africans in Charleston were compelled to carry their
manumission papers with them at all times because of the risk that some White
person could claim to be their owner. Free Africans ran the risk of being
kidnapped by any White person, stripped of their manumission papers and sold
into slavery. Until 1837 there were no laws against abducting free Africans and
selling them into slavery. For these and many other reasons although Vesey was a
free man he wanted to see an end to the enslavement of Africans.
Following the trial and execution of the Africans who were accused of plotting
the uprising in Charleston, the AME church was burnt to the ground. Information
from the Emanuel A.M.E. Church - National Park Service website
(http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/charleston/ema.htm) states that: ”During the Vesey
controversy, the AME church was burned. Worship services continued after the
church was rebuilt until 1834 when all-black churches were outlawed. The
congregation subsequently met in secret until 1865 when it was formally
reorganized, and the name Emanuel was adopted. Today, Emanuel AME Church is one
of more than 1400 historically significant buildings within the Charleston Old
and Historic District.” It was at this rebuilt Emanuel AME Church that on June
17, 2015 a 21 year old White supremacist terrorist massacred 9 African Americans
as they welcomed him into their church. Charleston, South Carolina which was
settled by British planters who immigrated from the British Caribbean island
colony Barbados beginning in 1670 set the slaveholding tone for that town they
named Charles Town. ”In early April 1670, the 220 ton frigate Carolina, six
months out from the island of Barbados, entered the waters forming what is now
the Charleston Harbor. The ship sailed up a shallow river to a point overlooked
by a heavily wooded bluff, and there about twenty white Barbadians disembarked
as part of the first permanent English-speaking settlement in South Carolina.”
According to author David Robertson these White Barbadians became rich on the
island by working the enslaved Africans to death on the sugar plantations in
Barbados and brought the same ”work ethic” to Charleston. ”The slave-generated
wealth of Barbados came at an appalling cost in African lives. Throughout the
seventeenth century, the island had one of the highest mortality rates for
blacks in the Western Hemisphere, and, whether from disease, malnutrition, or
torture, more died annually than were imported to work the great sugar
plantations. Unlike their English contemporaries in Massachusetts, Barbadians
seldom looked inward to their consciences, and so long as the supply of African
slaves seemed illimitable, their economy appeared untroubled.” That was the
beginning of the slave colony of Charleston, South Carolina which lasted until
the Civil war when Charleston struck the first blow which led to the Battle of
Fort Sumter (April 12”14, 1861.)
Ironically in the ”Charleston Courier” of Wednesday July 3, 1822 alongside a
notice of execution of Demark Vesey, Rolla Bennet, Batteau Bennet, Ned Bennet,
Peter Poyas and Jesse Blackwood there is a notice of the newly elected ”Officers
of the Charleston Bible Society” for the term 1822-1823 in which General C. C.
Pinckney is named as President. ”Charles Cotesworth Pinckney owned slaves
throughout his life and believed that the institution was necessary to the
economy of South Carolina. At the Constitutional Convention, he agreed to
abolish the slave trade in 1808, but opposed emancipation. In 1801, Pinckney
owned about 250 slaves. When his daughter Eliza married, Pinckney gave her fifty

3. slaves. On his death, he bequeathed his remaining slaves to his daughters and
nephews.”
Since the massacre of the 9 African Americans at the Emanuel AME Church there
has been an outcry demanding the removal of the ”Confederate Battle flag” with
its connection to the slave history of the southern states (there was slavery in
northern states.) The Reverend Clementa Carlos Pinckney, state senator who was
assassinated by a White supremacist terrorist in his church shares the initials
and last name of a White man who owned slaves. That Confederate flag continuing
to fly officially in Charleston is beyond ironic. It is one more reminder of the
abuse during slavery that led to Denmark Vesey planning an uprising and being
executed on July 2, 1822!
tiakoma@hotmail.com
Copyright © by Murphy Browne 2015