Denmark Vesey
Encyclopedia
Denmark Vesey originally Telemaque, (1767? – July 2, 1822) was an African American slave
brought to the United States from the Caribbean of Coromantee background. After purchasing his freedom, he planned what would have been one of the largest slave rebellions in the United States
. Word of the plans was leaked, and at Charleston, South Carolina
, authorities arrested the plot's leaders before the uprising could begin. Vesey and others were tried, convicted and executed. Although it was almost certainly not his home, the Denmark Vesey House
at Charleston was named a National Historic Landmark
in 1976.
Many antislavery activists came to regard Vesey as a hero. During the American Civil War
, abolitionist Frederick Douglass
used Vesey's name as a battle cry
to rally African-American regiment
s, especially the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
.
or in Africa. One writer, David Robertson, suggested that Denmark may have been of Mande origin, but evidence suggesting his Mande's heritage were generally not accepted by most African-American scholars. Historian Douglas Egerton suggested that Vesey could be of Coromantee (an Akan
-speaking people) origin, based on a remembrance by a free black carpenter who knew Vesey toward the end of his life.
Denmark labored briefly in French Saint-Domingue
(present-day Haiti
), and then was settled in Charleston, South Carolina as a youth, where Joseph Vesey kept him as a domestic slave. On November 9, 1799, Denmark Vesey won $1500 in a city lottery
. He bought his own freedom and began working as a carpenter
. Although a Presbyterian
as late as April 1816, Vesey co-founded a branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
in 1817. The church was temporarily shut down by white authorities in 1818 and again in 1820.
, and furious at the closing of the African Church, Vesey began to plan a slave rebellion. His insurrection, which was to take place on Bastille Day
, July 14, 1822, became known to thousands of blacks throughout Charleston and along the Carolina coast. The plot called for Vesey and his group of slaves and free blacks
to execute their enslavers and temporarily liberate the city of Charleston. Vesey and his followers planned to sail to Haiti to escape retaliation. Two slaves opposed to Vesey's scheme leaked the plot. Charleston authorities charged 131 men with conspiracy. In total, 67 men were convicted and 35 hanged, including Denmark Vesey.
Sandy Vesey, one of Denmark's sons, was transported, probably to Cuba
. Vesey's last wife Susan later immigrated to Liberia
. Another son, Robert Vesey, survived to rebuild Charleston's African Methodist Episcopal Church
in 1865.
In response to white panic, a municipal guard
of 150 men was established in Charleston in 1822. Half the men were stationed in an arsenal
called the Citadel. In 1842, the South Carolina legislature
replaced the expensive guardsmen with less expensive cadets. The arsenal was turned over to the newly established South Carolina Military Academy, which later became known as The Citadel
.
concocted a false conspiracy to use as a "political wedge issue" against Governor Thomas Bennett Jr., who owned four of the accused slaves. Somewhat in reaction to the Missouri Compromise
, which restricted slavery in the western territories, Mayor Hamilton came to support a militant approach to protecting slavery. He called for draconian measures, while the governor clung to a paternalistic view. In 1822, white Carolinians uniformly believed in the existence of a conspiracy. Governor Bennett, while believing that the plot was not as widespread as Hamilton thought, nonetheless called Vesey's plan "a ferocious, diabolical design."
Johnson also asserted that aside from questionable court records, no other material evidence existed of Vesey's plans to lead the revolt. Specialists, however, observe that a number of blacks familiar with Vesey or the Reverend Morris Brown, especially free black carpenter Thomas Brown, spoke or wrote about the plot in later years.
In 2004, historian Robert Tinkler, a biographer of Mayor Hamilton, reported that he uncovered no documentation to support Johnson's theory. James Hamilton, he concluded, "believed there was indeed a Vesey plot."
In the April 2011 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly, historian James O'Neil Spady showed that under Johnson's own criteria, the statements of some of the earliest witnesses, George Wilson and Joe LaRoache, ought to be considered credible. Neither man was coerced nor imprisoned. Both volunteered their testimony, and LaRoache even risked statements that the court could have construed as self-incriminating. Spady concluded that a real, but perhaps smaller, conspiracy had been about to launch when the plans were revealed.
's 19th-century novel Blake referred to Vesey, as did Dorothy Heyward
's drama Set My People Free. Vesey was the subject of a 1939 opera named after him by novelist and composer Paul Bowles
. Vesey is also mentioned in the 1974 novel "Roots" by Alex Haley.
Several PBS documentaries have included material on Denmark Vesey, particularly Africans in America and This Far By Faith.
Vesey was the subject of the 1980s made-for-television drama, Denmark Vesey's Revolt, in which his character was played by actor Yaphet Kotto
. Vesey's character also appeared in the 1991 TV movie Brother Future
, in which he was played by the then-too young Carl Lumbly, who was 40 years old at the time.
A CBS Radio Workshop drama written by Richard Durham, Sweet Cherries in Charleston , broadcast August 25, 1957, tells the story of the aborted 1822 rebellion.
Denmark Vesey is the name and basis for a character created by Orson Scott Card
in The Tales of Alvin Maker
, a series of books which detail an alternate history of America. The character Denmark emerges in Book Five, Heartfire
, in which his slave rebellion comes under threat by mistakes made by Alvin’s brother, Calvin Miller/Maker. Vesey's conspiracy also formed the basis of John Oliver Killens
' brief novella, Great Gittin' Up Morning. He appears briefly in John Jakes
' Charleston, where he is mischaracterized as a mulatto
.
After Denmark, a play by David Robson, is a contemporary take on the historical Denmark Vesey. In it, a young editor (who may be related to Vesey) travels to the Deep South
to confront questions of racism and identity. The play first appeared at the 2008 Great Plains Theatre Conference. A workshop production by Yellow Taxi Productions is planned for the fall of 2008.
Joe McPhee
's composition Message from Denmark, featured on the 1971 album Joe McPhee & Survival Unit II at WBAI's Free Music Store, is dedicated to Denmark Vesey.
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
brought to the United States from the Caribbean of Coromantee background. After purchasing his freedom, he planned what would have been one of the largest slave rebellions in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Word of the plans was leaked, and at Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, authorities arrested the plot's leaders before the uprising could begin. Vesey and others were tried, convicted and executed. Although it was almost certainly not his home, the Denmark Vesey House
Denmark Vesey House
Although named a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and commonly known as the Denmark Vesey House, the home today located at 56 Bull Street in Charleston, South Carolina is almost certainly not the house once inhabited by black abolitionist Denmark Vesey...
at Charleston was named a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1976.
Many antislavery activists came to regard Vesey as a hero. During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, abolitionist Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
used Vesey's name as a battle cry
Battle cry
A battle cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same military unit.Battle cries are not necessarily articulate, although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religious sentiment....
to rally African-American regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
s, especially the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was one of the first official black units in the United States during the Civil War...
.
Early life
No records existed on Denmark's origins, although scholars have speculated that he may have been born in St. ThomasSaint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of...
or in Africa. One writer, David Robertson, suggested that Denmark may have been of Mande origin, but evidence suggesting his Mande's heritage were generally not accepted by most African-American scholars. Historian Douglas Egerton suggested that Vesey could be of Coromantee (an Akan
Akan language
Akan, also known as Twi and Fante, is an Akan language that is the principal native language of Ghana, spoken over much of the southern half of that country, by about 52% of the population, and to a lesser extent across the border in eastern Côte d'Ivoire...
-speaking people) origin, based on a remembrance by a free black carpenter who knew Vesey toward the end of his life.
Denmark labored briefly in French Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue
The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...
(present-day Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
), and then was settled in Charleston, South Carolina as a youth, where Joseph Vesey kept him as a domestic slave. On November 9, 1799, Denmark Vesey won $1500 in a city lottery
Lottery
A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...
. He bought his own freedom and began working as a carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
. Although a Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
as late as April 1816, Vesey co-founded a branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...
in 1817. The church was temporarily shut down by white authorities in 1818 and again in 1820.
The Vesey conspiracy
Inspired by the revolutionary spirit and actions of slaves during the 1791 Haitian RevolutionHaitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...
, and furious at the closing of the African Church, Vesey began to plan a slave rebellion. His insurrection, which was to take place on Bastille Day
Bastille Day
Bastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet...
, July 14, 1822, became known to thousands of blacks throughout Charleston and along the Carolina coast. The plot called for Vesey and his group of slaves and free blacks
Free people of color
A free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved...
to execute their enslavers and temporarily liberate the city of Charleston. Vesey and his followers planned to sail to Haiti to escape retaliation. Two slaves opposed to Vesey's scheme leaked the plot. Charleston authorities charged 131 men with conspiracy. In total, 67 men were convicted and 35 hanged, including Denmark Vesey.
Sandy Vesey, one of Denmark's sons, was transported, probably to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. Vesey's last wife Susan later immigrated to Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
. Another son, Robert Vesey, survived to rebuild Charleston's African Methodist Episcopal Church
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...
in 1865.
In response to white panic, a municipal guard
City guard
City guard, city watch, town guard or town watch was a law enforcement formation found in some countries and historical periods, usually subordinate to the local municipal government...
of 150 men was established in Charleston in 1822. Half the men were stationed in an arsenal
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
called the Citadel. In 1842, the South Carolina legislature
South Carolina General Assembly
The South Carolina General Assembly, also called the South Carolina Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of South Carolina. The legislature is bicameral and consists of the lower South Carolina House of Representatives and the upper South Carolina Senate. Altogether, the General...
replaced the expensive guardsmen with less expensive cadets. The arsenal was turned over to the newly established South Carolina Military Academy, which later became known as The Citadel
The Citadel (military college)
The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, also known simply as The Citadel, is a state-supported, comprehensive college located in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. It is one of the six senior military colleges in the United States...
.
White hysteria?
Recent scholarship in 2001 by historian Michael Johnson gave a new twist to historian Richard Wade's 1964 theory that the Vesey Conspiracy was nothing more than "angry talk." According to Johnson, Mayor James Hamilton Jr.James Hamilton Jr.
James Hamilton, Jr. was an American lawyer and politician. He represented South Carolina in the U.S. Congress and served as its 53rd Governor ....
concocted a false conspiracy to use as a "political wedge issue" against Governor Thomas Bennett Jr., who owned four of the accused slaves. Somewhat in reaction to the Missouri Compromise
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an agreement passed in 1820 between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories. It prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30'...
, which restricted slavery in the western territories, Mayor Hamilton came to support a militant approach to protecting slavery. He called for draconian measures, while the governor clung to a paternalistic view. In 1822, white Carolinians uniformly believed in the existence of a conspiracy. Governor Bennett, while believing that the plot was not as widespread as Hamilton thought, nonetheless called Vesey's plan "a ferocious, diabolical design."
Johnson also asserted that aside from questionable court records, no other material evidence existed of Vesey's plans to lead the revolt. Specialists, however, observe that a number of blacks familiar with Vesey or the Reverend Morris Brown, especially free black carpenter Thomas Brown, spoke or wrote about the plot in later years.
In 2004, historian Robert Tinkler, a biographer of Mayor Hamilton, reported that he uncovered no documentation to support Johnson's theory. James Hamilton, he concluded, "believed there was indeed a Vesey plot."
In the April 2011 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly, historian James O'Neil Spady showed that under Johnson's own criteria, the statements of some of the earliest witnesses, George Wilson and Joe LaRoache, ought to be considered credible. Neither man was coerced nor imprisoned. Both volunteered their testimony, and LaRoache even risked statements that the court could have construed as self-incriminating. Spady concluded that a real, but perhaps smaller, conspiracy had been about to launch when the plans were revealed.
In art
Martin DelanyMartin Delany
Martin Robinson Delany was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, physician, and writer, arguably the first proponent of American black nationalism. He was one of the first three blacks admitted to Harvard Medical School. He became the first African-American field officer in the United...
's 19th-century novel Blake referred to Vesey, as did Dorothy Heyward
Dorothy Heyward
Dorothy Heyward Dorothy Heyward Dorothy Heyward (née Kuhns, (June 6, 1890 – November 19, 1961) was an American playwright.Born in Wooster, Ohio, she was married to the author DuBose Heyward, and adapted several of his scripts for the stage, including Porgy.-External links:...
's drama Set My People Free. Vesey was the subject of a 1939 opera named after him by novelist and composer Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator.Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making various trips to Paris...
. Vesey is also mentioned in the 1974 novel "Roots" by Alex Haley.
Several PBS documentaries have included material on Denmark Vesey, particularly Africans in America and This Far By Faith.
Vesey was the subject of the 1980s made-for-television drama, Denmark Vesey's Revolt, in which his character was played by actor Yaphet Kotto
Yaphet Kotto
Yaphet Frederick Kotto is an African-American actor, known for numerous film roles , and his starring role in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street .-Early life:Kotto was born in New York City, the son of Gladys Marie, a...
. Vesey's character also appeared in the 1991 TV movie Brother Future
Brother Future
Brother Future is a 1991 science fiction movie. It starred Phill Lewis, Moses Gunn, Frank Converse, Carl Lumbly, Vonetta McGee, and Michael Burgess. A street kid from Detroit, Michigan, is hit by a car; when he awakes, he finds himself a slave in South Carolina in 1822. The boy then has to help...
, in which he was played by the then-too young Carl Lumbly, who was 40 years old at the time.
A CBS Radio Workshop drama written by Richard Durham, Sweet Cherries in Charleston , broadcast August 25, 1957, tells the story of the aborted 1822 rebellion.
Denmark Vesey is the name and basis for a character created by Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...
in The Tales of Alvin Maker
The Tales of Alvin Maker
The Tales of Alvin Maker is a series of novels by Orson Scott Card that revolve around the experiences of a young man, Alvin Miller, who discovers he has incredible powers for creating and shaping things around him...
, a series of books which detail an alternate history of America. The character Denmark emerges in Book Five, Heartfire
Heartfire
Heartfire is an alternate history/fantasy novel by Orson Scott Card. It is the fifth book in Card's The Tales of Alvin Maker series and is about Alvin Miller, the Seventh son of a seventh son...
, in which his slave rebellion comes under threat by mistakes made by Alvin’s brother, Calvin Miller/Maker. Vesey's conspiracy also formed the basis of John Oliver Killens
John Oliver Killens
John Oliver Killens was a black American fiction writer whose novels of African American life received two Pulitzer Prize nominations.-Early life and education:...
' brief novella, Great Gittin' Up Morning. He appears briefly in John Jakes
John Jakes
John William Jakes is an American writer, best known for American historical fiction.-Early life and education:...
' Charleston, where he is mischaracterized as a mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
.
After Denmark, a play by David Robson, is a contemporary take on the historical Denmark Vesey. In it, a young editor (who may be related to Vesey) travels to the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
to confront questions of racism and identity. The play first appeared at the 2008 Great Plains Theatre Conference. A workshop production by Yellow Taxi Productions is planned for the fall of 2008.
Joe McPhee
Joe McPhee
Joe McPhee is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone...
's composition Message from Denmark, featured on the 1971 album Joe McPhee & Survival Unit II at WBAI's Free Music Store, is dedicated to Denmark Vesey.
Primary
- Bennett, Thomas Jr. Circular Letter, dated August 10, 1822, n.p. reprinted in National Intelligencer, August 24, 1822; and in Nile’s Weekly Register, September 7, 1822.
- Digital Library on American Slavery
- Hamilton, James. An Account of the Late Insurrection Among A Portion of the Blacks of this City. Charleston: A. E. Miller, 1822. Also published as Negro Plot: An Account of the Late Insurrection Among A Portion of the Blacks of Charleston, South Carolina. Joseph Ingraham, Boston, 1822. Available online.
- Kennedy, Lionel; Parker, Thomas. An Official Report of the Trials of Sundry Negroes Charged with an Attempt to Raise an Insurrection in the State of South Carolina, Preceded by an Introduction and Narrative and in an Appendix, a Report of the Trials of Four White Persons, on Indictments for Attempting to incite the Slaves to Insurrection. Prepared and published at the request of the Court. Charleston, 1822. Available online.
Secondary
- Egerton, Douglas R. He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey, 2nd ed. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004.
- Freehling, William W. “Denmark Vesey’s Peculiar Reality,” in Robert Abzug and Stephen Maizlish. New Perspectives in Race and Slavery: Essays in Honor of Kenneth Stampp. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1986.
- Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. “Denmark Vesey,” Atlantic Monthly, VII, (June 1861), 728-744. Available Online.
- Johnson, Michael P. “Denmark Vesey and his Co-Conspirators,” William and Mary Quarterly, LVIII, No. 4. (October 2001), 915-976.
- Johnson, Michael P., et al., Responses in “Forum”, William and Mary Quarterly, LViV, No. 1, (January 2002).
- Lofton, John. Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey. Yellow Springs, Ohio: The Antioch Press, 1964. Reissued as Denmark Vesey’s Revolt, Kent State University Press, 1983.
- Paquette, Robert L. "From Rebellion to Revisionism: The Continuing Debate About the Denmark Vesey Affair," Journal of the Historical Society, IV (Fall 2004), 291-334.
- Rucker, Walter G., The river flows on: Black resistance, culture, and identity formation in early America, LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0807131091
- Spady, James O'Neil, "Power and Confession: On the Credibility of the Earliest Reports of the Denmark Vesey Slave Conspiracy,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd. ser., 68 (April 2011), 287-304.
- Tinkler, Robert, James Hamilton of South Carolina. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004.
- van Daacke, Kirt. Denmark Vesey. Teachinghistory.org. Accessed 2 June, 2011.
- Wade, Richard C. “The Vesey Plot: A Reconsideration.” Journal of Southern History, XXX (May 1964), l43-161.
- Executions in the U.S. 1608-1987: The Espy File (by state)