Vesey, Denmark
Vesey, Denmark c. 1767–1822
The man later known as Denmark Vesey was born around 1767, probably on the Caribbean island of Saint Thomas. Joseph Vesey, a Carolina-based slaver, purchased the boy in 1781 as part of a cargo of 390 bondpeople. During the passage to the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), Vesey noticed the child’s “beauty, alertness, and intelligence” and employed him as a cabin boy. But when the ship reached Cap François, the captain “had no use for the boy” and turned him over to his colonial agents. Either traumatized by his new life in Saint-Domingue or feigning illness, the child began to display “epileptic fits.” Returned to the docks, a physician “certified that the lad” was unwell, which cancelled the sale. When Joseph Vesey returned to Cap François on April 23, 1782, with a new cargo of Gold Coast slaves, he was forced to take the child back. The fits promptly ceased, and Vesey decided to keep him as a servant.
Charleston authorities later described the child as a person of “superior power of mind & the more dangerous for it.” The captain saw only the value of a tall, muscular boy already conversant in two languages. Vesey gave the boy a new name, Telemaque, after the son of Homer’s Odysseus; over time, Carolina bondmen either punned or corrupted the name into Denmak, and then finally Denmark.
In the spring of 1783, following the British evacuation of South Carolina, Joseph Vesey settled into Charleston as a ship chandler. At some point during this period, Denmark married an enslaved woman named Beck. Beck had several masters over the course of her life, but she remained married to Denmark long enough to give birth to at least three of his children. Two of his sons were named Polydore and Robert; a third, Sandy, would be the only child to be implicated in his 1822 plot. Toward the end of his life, Denmark Vesey married again. His last wife, Susan, was born a slave around 1795. She was the only woman to carry his surname. Some historians have speculated that Vesey practiced polygamy, although no evidence exists to support the theory.
On September 30, 1799, Denmark happened upon a handbill announcing the “East-Bay Lottery,” and bought a ticket. In November, Charleston newspapers declared his ticket the winner. The prize was $1,500, a princely sum that slaves who hired their time would take ten years to acquire. Joseph Vesey agreed to sell Denmark his freedom for $600; the contract was signed on December 31, 1799. After seventeen years as a Charleston slave, the thirty-three-year-old Denmark was free.
Chained to the South by family ties, Denmark remained in the city and apprenticed himself to a carpenter, an easy trade to learn and a lucrative business as Charleston expanded up the peninsula. At the same time, he adopted Vesey as a surname, probably as a linguistic tie to an established businessman whose name could help to secure clients. Vesey threw his enormous energies into his business, and according to one former slave, Denmark labored “every day at de trade of carpenter” and “soon became much [re]spected” and “esteem[ed] by de white folks.” But because of competition from white carpenters, free mulattoes (whose fathers provided business contacts), and enslaved craftsmen (who lived with their masters and paid no rent), Vesey barely maintained a modest income. Despite published claims made in 1822 that he died a rich man worth nearly $8,000, there is no evidence that Vesey ever owned a single piece of property.
Around 1818 Vesey joined the city’s new African Methodist Episcopal congregation, the center of Charleston’s enslaved community. Sandy Vesey also joined, as did four of Vesey’s closest friends: Peter Poyas, a literate ship carpenter; Monday Gell, an African-born Ibo who labored as a harness maker; Rolla Bennett, the manservant of Governor Thomas Bennett; and “Gullah” Jack Pritchard, an East African priest and woodworker purchased in Zinguebar in 1806. The temporary closure of the church by city authorities in June 1818 and the arrest of 140 congregants, one of them presumably Vesey, reinforced the determination of black Carolinians to maintain a place of independent worship and established the motivation for Vesey’s conspiracy. In 1820 several “Negroes was taken up” for holding a late-night service at the church, and city authorities warned that they would not tolerate class leaders conducting instructional “schools for slaves,” as “the education of such persons was forbidden by law.” The “African Church was the people,” Gell replied. He and Pritchard had considered insurrection in 1818, “and now they had begun again to try it.”
At the age of fifty-one, Vesey briefly thought about emigrating to the English colony of Sierra Leone. But as Beck’s children remained slaves, Vesey resolved instead to orchestrate a rebellion, followed by a mass exodus from Charleston to Haiti. President Jean-Pierre Boyer had recently encouraged black Americans to bring their skills and capital to his beleaguered republic. Vesey did not intend to tarry in Charleston long enough for white military power to present an effective counterassault. “As soon as they could get the money from the Banks, and the goods from the stores,” Rolla insisted, “they should hoist sail” for Saint-Domingue and live as free men.
Vesey planned the escape for nearly four years. His chief lieutenants included Poyas, Gell, Rolla Bennett, and “Gullah” Jack Pritchard. Although there are no reliable figures for the number of recruits, Charleston alone was home to 12,652 slaves. Pritchard, probably with some exaggeration, boasted that he had 6,600 recruits on the plantations across the Cooper and Ashley rivers. The plan called for Vesey’s followers to rise at midnight on Sunday, July 14—Bastille Day—slay their masters, and sail for Haiti and freedom. As one southern editor later conceded: “The plot seems to have been well devised, and its operation was extensive.”
The plot unraveled in June 1822 when two slaves revealed the plan to their owners. Mayor James Hamilton called up the city militia and convened a special court to try the captured insurgents. Vesey was captured at Beck’s home on June 21 and hanged on July 2, together with Rolla, Poyas, and three other rebels. In all, thirty-five slaves were executed. Forty-two others, including Sandy Vesey, were sold outside the United States; some, if not all, became slaves in Spanish Cuba. Robert Vesey lived to rebuild the African Church in the fall of 1865.
SEE ALSO Slavery
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Egerton, Douglas R. 1999. He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey. Madison, WI: Madison House.
Freehling, William W. 1994. The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lofton, John. 1964. Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey. Yellow Springs, OH: Antioch.
Paquette, Robert L. 2002. Jacobins of the Lowcountry: The Vesey Plot on Trial. William and Mary Quarterly 59: 185–192.
Douglas R. Egerton
Vesey, Denmark
Vesey, Denmark c. 1767–1822
The man later known as Denmark Vesey was born around 1767, probably on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas. Captain Joseph Vesey, a Carolina-based slaver, purchased the boy in September or October of 1781 as part of a cargo of 390 bondpeople. During the passage to the French colony of Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti), Vesey noticed the child’s “beauty, alertness and intelligence” and employed him as a cabin boy. But when his ship, the Prospect, reached Cap François, the captain decided he “had no use for the boy” and turned him over to his colonial agents. Either traumatized by his new life in Saint Domingue or feigning illness, the child began to display “epileptic fits.” As a result, Vesey was forced to take the child back when he returned to Cap François on April 23, 1782. The fits promptly ceased, and Vesey decided to keep him as a servant.
Charleston authorities later described the child as a person of “superior power of mind & the more dangerous for it.” Vesey, however, saw only the value of a tall, muscular boy already conversant in two languages. He gave the boy a new name, Telemaque, who in Homer’s tale was the wandering son of Odysseus; over time, Carolina bondmen either punned or corrupted the name into “Denmak,” which then became “Denmark.”
In the spring of 1783, following the British evacuation of South Carolina, Vesey settled into Charleston as a ship chandler. At some point during this period, Denmark married his first wife, an enslaved woman named Beck. She may have been Denmark’s senior, because she already had a daughter, Sarah, from a previous relationship. Beck had several masters over the course of her life, but she remained married to Denmark long enough to give birth to at least three of his children. Toward the end of his life, Vesey married again. His last wife, Susan, was born a slave around 1795 but was free by 1821, when tax collectors listed her under the name of “Susan Vesey” and characterized her as a “free negro.” She was the only woman to carry his surname. Some historians have speculated that Vesey practiced polygamy, although no evidence exists to support the theory. In a time of high female mortality, especially among urban bondwomen, Vesey could easily have united with the several women his friend Monday Gell later spoke of and yet remain monogamous.
On September 30, 1799, Denmark happened upon a handbill announcing the “East-Bay Lottery.” He bought a ticket and won the top prize of $1,500, a princely sum at the time, particularly for a slave. Joseph Vesey and his wife, Mary Clodner, agreed to sell him his freedom for $600, and on December 31, 1799, the thirty-three year old Denmark was at last free.
Chained to the South by family ties, Denmark remained in the city and apprenticed himself to a carpenter, an easy trade to learn and a lucrative business in Charleston, which was expanding up the peninsula. At the same time, he adopted “Vesey” as a surname, probably as a linguistic tie to an established businessman. He threw his enormous energies into his business, and, according to one former slave, labored “every day at de trade of carpenter” and “soon became much [re]spected” and “esteem[ed] by de white folks.” But because of competition from white carpenters, free Mulattoes (whose fathers provided business contacts) and enslaved craftsmen (who lived with their masters and paid no rent), Vesey barely maintained a modest income. Despite published claims made in 1822 that he died a rich man worth nearly $8,000, there is no evidence that Vesey ever owned a single piece of property. His rented home, at 20 Bull Street, was owned by Benjamin Ireland, a white carpenter.
Although Vesey was briefly a practicing Presbyterian, around 1818 he joined the city’s new African Methodist Episcopal congregation. Formed when 4,376 slaves and free blacks resigned from the Methodist fold because church authorities voted to construct a hearse house above a black cemetery, the African Church, as both whites and blacks called it, quickly became the center of Charleston’s enslaved community. Sandy Vesey also joined, as did four of Vesey’s closest friends—Peter Poyas, a literate ship carpenter; Monday Gell, an African-born Ibo who labored as a harness maker; Rolla Bennett, the manservant of Governor Thomas Bennett; and Jack Pritchard, a fellow carpenter. The temporary closure of the church by city authorities in June 1818, and the arrest of 140 congregants, one of them presumably Vesey himself, only reinforced the determination of black Carolinians to maintain a place of independent worship. In 1820 several “Negroes was taken up” for holding a late-night service at the church, and city authorities warned Reverend Morris Brown that they would not tolerate class leaders conducting instructional “schools for slaves,” as “the education of such persons was forbidden by law.” The “African Church was the people,” Monday Gell replied. He and Pritchard had considered insurrection in 1818, “and now they had begun again to try it.”
At the age of fifty-one, Vesey briefly thought about emigrating to the English colony of Sierra Leone. But as Beck’s children remained slaves, Vesey resolved instead to orchestrate a rebellion, followed by a mass exodus from Charleston to Haiti, where President Jean-Pierre Boyer had recently encouraged black Americans to bring their skills and capital to his beleaguered republic. Vesey did not intend to tarry in Charleston long enough for white military power to present an effective counterassault. “As soon as they could get the money from the Banks, and the goods from the stores,” Rolla insisted, “they should hoist sail” for Saint Domingue and live as free men. Vesey planned the escape for nearly four years. His chief lieutenants included Poyas, Gell, and Rolla Bennett. Vesey’s inner circle also included “Gullah” Jack Pritchard, an East African priest purchased in Zinguebar in 1806. Although there are no reliable figures for the number of recruits, Charleston alone was home to 12,652 slaves in 1820, along with 10,653 whites and 1,475 free blacks (Wade 1964). Pritchard, probably with some exaggeration, boasted that he had 6,600 recruits on the plantations across the Cooper and Ashley Rivers. The plan called for Vesey’s followers to rise at midnight on Sunday, July 14 (Bastille Day), slay their masters, and sail for Haiti and freedom. As one southern editor later conceded: “The plot seems to have been well devised, and its operation was extensive.”
The plot unraveled in June 1822 when two slaves, including Rolla’s friend George Wilson revealed the plan to their owners. Mayor James Hamilton called up the city militia and convened a special court to try the captured insurgents. Vesey was captured at the home of Beck, his first wife, on June 21, and he was hanged on the morning of Tuesday, July 2, together with Rolla, Poyas, and three other rebels. In all, thirty-five slaves were executed. Fortytwo others, including Sandy Vesey, were sold outside the United States; some, if not all, became slaves in Spanish Cuba. Denmark Vesey’s son Robert lived to rebuild the African Church in the fall of 1865.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Egerton, Douglas R. 1999. He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey. Madison, WI: Madison House Publishers.
Freehling, William W. 1994. The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lofton, John. 1964. Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey. Yellow Springs, OH: Antioch Press.
Paquette, Robert L. 2002. “Jacobins of the Lowcountry: The Vesey Plot on Trial.” William and Mary Quarterly 59 (1): 185–192.
Wade, Richard C. 1964. Slavery in the Cities: The South 1820–1860. New York: Oxford University Press.
Douglas R. Egerton
Denmark Vesey
Denmark Vesey
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."
Further Reading
The best account of Vesey's rebellion is Robert S. Starobin, ed., Denmark Vesey: The Slave Conspiracy of 1822 (1970). Of considerable importance is John Lofton, Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey (1964). Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts (1943), provides a useful account of Vesey's revolt. William W. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina (1966), should be consulted for a broad understanding of the influence of the event. □