Denmark Vesey
Between June 19 and August 6, 1822, the Charleston, SC, Court of Magistrates and Freeholders interrogated, tortured, and tried in closed sessions over 100 African Americans as co-conspirators in a planned slave rebellion. Almost all were slaves. The court sent 35 of them to the gallows, two died in custody, and nearly 40 were transported out of the United States.
The Official Story
The court's Official Report, published later that same year, identified a local free black, Denmark Vesey, as "the author, and original instigator of this diabolical plot…to trample on all laws, human and divine; to riot in blood, outrage, rapine…and conflagration, and to introduce anarchy and confusion in their most horrid forms" (see Primary Source Official Report [1822]).
Since that time, historians...have...largely framed their analysis in the heroic terms presented earlier by Higginson.
Abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson, writing in the Atlantic Monthly nearly 40 years later, accepted the court’s assertions in terming the Vesey rebellion plot "the most elaborate insurrectionary project ever formed by American slaves…In boldness of conception and thoroughness of organization there has been nothing to compare it with."
Higginson, however, would remember Vesey in a more positive light as an example of heroic African American agency in attempting to strike a blow for freedom: "that a conspiracy on so large a scale should have existed…and yet have been so well managed…shows extraordinary ability in the leaders, and a talent for concerted action on the part of slaves generally with which they have hardly been credited."
Since that time, historians have largely accepted the account of the planned insurrection laid out in the court's Official Report and have as well largely framed their analysis in the heroic terms presented earlier by Higginson.
The Report Questioned
In 1964, however, Richard Wade questioned that view and instead suggested that the Official Report did not represent a document that historians could trust. He further suggested that "no conspiracy in fact existed." Scholars at the time rejected Wade's conclusions—he long stood as a lone dissenting voice concerning the Vesey plot. In particular, recent works by Douglas R. Egerton, David Robertson, and Edward R. Pearson disagree with Wade and cast Vesey once again as a doomed but heroic rebel who attempted to organize a massive rebellion.
Richard Wade questioned that view and instead suggested that the Official Report did not represent a document that historians could trust.
Starting in 2001, however, The William and Mary Quarterly published a review forum centered on those three books. Michael P. Johnson's review and evidentiary examination raised serious questions about both the primary source materials those books were based on and the way the historians interpreted the extant evidence. Almost all scholars have privileged the "Official Report," that document produced by the court after the trials and executions, without carefully considering another very similar set of documents—the manuscript transcripts in the Records of the General Assembly.
This scholarly debate has also highlighted the ways in which white Americans could use the public hysteria surrounding slave conspiracy scares to shore up political power and strengthen slavery. Thus, the trial records surrounding the Denmark Vesey saga could in fact tell us as much about slavery's effect on regional political, social, and cultural development as they do about black American agency.
Johnson's work has also rekindled an older debate about African American agency and resistance in slave society
Nonetheless, Johnson's work has also rekindled an older debate about African American agency and resistance in slave society: Does the relative absence in the U.S. of large-scale coordinated rebellions against enslavement tell us that American slaves generally failed to resist, or do we need to rethink our understanding of what heroism and resistance to slavery might look like?
For Johnson, although the Vesey rebellion was a figment of the white imagination, the African Americans who pled not guilty and additionally refused to provide false testimony against other blacks—including Denmark Vesey himself—represent the truly heroic resisters of slave society.
Vesey in Textbooks
Textbooks, if they discuss Denmark Vesey at all (only four of 14 textbooks examined included even a mention of Vesey and/or the 1822 plot), usually ignore those debates and instead portray Vesey briefly as a heroic rebel who met a tragic end.
Typical relevant state standards of learning expect eighth graders to be able to:
- draw conclusions about how sectionalism arose from . . . circumstances of racial tension . . . including the Denmark Vesey Plot" (SC);
- Trace the development of slavery and its effect on black Americans . . . through historical documents on Denmark Vesey (DC); or
- identify the strategies that were tried to both overturn and preserve [slavery] (CA)
Judged by these student expectations, essential skills, and performance standards, all of the textbooks under consideration fall short of those goals as far as Vesey is concerned.
Holt's American Anthem, though consigning Vesey to the evidence section, acknowledges that there is a scholarly debate about whether the conspiracy was real or not.
For instance, The American Pageant says he "led another ill-fated rebellion in Charleston." Prentice Hall's contribution, although one of the most detailed, uncritically repeats a series of detailed assertions about the alleged plot, including that Vesey "was inspired by the successful slave rebellion" that had taken place in Haiti decades earlier and that he was "prompted into action" when authorities shut down his church.
Holt's American Anthem, though consigning Vesey to the evidence section, acknowledges that there is a scholarly debate about whether the conspiracy was real or not. It also includes an excerpt from the narrative section of the "Official Report," the document produced by the court after the trials and executions. Unfortunately, the text makes no mention of where the source came from, nor does it present any additional or conflicting information.
Vesey in the Classroom
The controversy surrounding Denmark Vesey and his planned 1822 rebellion represents an intriguing case study for students in the classroom as it raises fascinating questions about how historians (and students) should interpret an incomplete evidentiary record, and about how to define and understand resistance to slavery and domination, and creates an opportunity to complicate the students' understanding of slave and free black life in the slave South.
Ultimately, the question about whether or not Vesey planned a rebellion may represent a distraction
Ultimately, the question about whether or not Vesey planned a rebellion may represent a distraction. For students, the true value in reading excerpts from the Official Report, the original manuscript court transcripts, or even letters and newspaper reporting from 1822, may lie in what those documents reveal about daily life in antebellum Charleston, interactions between whites, blacks, slaves, and free people of color, and how literacy, reading, and information spread in a largely non-literate society (see Primary Source Anna Hayes Johnson Letter [1822] and Primary Source Letter to Charleston Courier [1822]).
Official Charleston Account (1822)
Annotation
The official account published by Charleston regarding the 1822 Vesey revolt. The author, James Hamilton, vaulted himself to national recognition and great political success in South Carolina following the trials and executions of 1822. The full text can be read here, from Documenting the American South.
Primary Source(s)
On Thursday, the 27th, DENMARK VESEY, a free black man, was brought before the court for trial,
Assisted by his counsel, G. W. CROSS, Esq.
It is perhaps somewhat remarkable, that at this stage of the investigation, although several witnesses had been examined, the atrocious guilt of Denmark Vesey had not been as yet fully unfolded. From the testimony of most of the witnesses, however, the court found enough, and amply enough, to warrant the sentence of death, which, on the 28th, they passed on him. But every subsequent step in the progress of the trials of others, lent new confirmation to his overwhelming guilt, and placed him beyond a doubt, on the criminal eminence of having been the individual, in whose bosom the nefarious scheme was first engendered. There is ample reason for believing, that this project was not, with him, of recent origin, for it was said, he had spoken of it for upwards of four years.
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 2d July.*
* As Denmark Vesey has occupied so large a place in the conspiracy, a brief notice of him will, perhaps, be not devoid of interest. The following anecdote will show how near he was to the chance of being distinguished in the bloody events of San Domingo. During the revolutionary war, captain Vesey, now an old resident of this city, commanded a ship that traded between St. Thomas' and Cape François (San Domingo.) He was engaged in supplying the French of that island with slaves. In the year 1781, he took on board, at St. Thomas's, 390 slaves and sailed for the Cape; on the passage, he and his officers were struck with the beauty, alertness, and intelligence, of a boy about 14 years of age, whom they made a pet of, by taking him into the cabin, changing his apparel, and calling him, by way of distinction, Telemaque, (which appellation has since, by gradual corruption, among the negroes, been changed to Denmark, or sometimes Telmak.) On the arrival, however, of the ship at the Cape, captain Vesey, having no use for the boy, sold him among his other slaves, and returned to St. Thomas's. On his next voyage to the Cape, he was surprised to learn from his consignee that Telemaque would be returned on his hands, as the planter, who had purchased him, represented him unsound, and subject to epileptick fits. According to the custom of trade in that place, the boy was placed in the hands of the king's physician, who decided that he was unsound, and captain Vesey was compelled to take him back, of which he had no occasion to repent, as Denmark proved, for 20 years, a most faithful slave. In 1800, Denmark drew a prize of $1500 in the East Bay street lottery, with which he purchased his freedom from his master, at six hundred dollars, much less than his real value. From that period to the day of his apprehension, he has been working as a carpenter in this city, distinguished for great strength and activity. Among his colour he was always looked up to with awe and respect. His temper was impetuous and domineering in the extreme, qualifying him for the despotick rule, of which he was ambitious. All his passions were ungovernable and savage; and to his numerous wives and children, he displayed the haughty and capricious cruelty of an eastern bashaw. He had nearly effected his escape, after information had been lodged against him. For three days the town was searched for him without success. As early as Monday, the 17th, he had concealed himself. It was not until the night of the 22d of June, during a perfect tempest, that he was found secreted in the house of one of his wives. It is to the uncommon efforts and vigilance of Mr. Wesner, and capt. Dove, of the city guard, (the latter of whom seized him) that publick justice received its necessary tribute, in the execution of this man. If the party had been one moment later, he would, in all probability, have effected his escape the next day in some outward bound vessel.
Official Report (1822)
Annotation
Published in 1822, the 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 of Attempting to Excite the Slaves to Insurrection presents the presiding magistrates' version of the case. This document includes a post-trial court-produced narrative of the planned rebellion and post-trial court-edited trial transcripts, all of which has served as the most significant body of evidence for historians who think Vesey indeed planned a rebellion in 1822. The full text of the report can be read at the Library of Congress.
Primary Source(s)
Excerpt from the Official Report:
Evidence: William, the slave of Mr. Paul, testified as follows:
Mingo Harth told me that Denmark Vesey was the chiefest man, and more concerned than any one else—Denmark Vesey is an old man in whose yard my master's negro woman Sarah cooks—he was her father in law, having married her mother Beck, and though they have been parted some time, yet he visited her at her house near the Intendant's, (Major Hamilton) where I have often heard him speak of the rising—He said he would not like to have a white man in his presence—that he had a great hatred for the whites, and that if all were like him they would resist the whites—he studies all he can to put it into the heads of the blacks to have a rising against the whites, and tried to induce me to join—he tries to induce all his acquaintances—this has been his chief study and delight for a considerable time—my last conversation with him was in April—he studies the Bible a great deal and tries to prove from it that slavery and bondage is against the Bible. I am persuaded that Denmark Vesey was chiefly concerned in business.
Evidence: Benjamin Ford, a white lad, about 15 or 16 years of age, deposed as follows:
Denmark Vesey frequently came into our shop which is near his house, and always complained of the hardships of blacks—he said the laws were very rigid and strict and that the blacks had not their rights—that every one had his time, and that his would come round too—his general conversation was about religion which he would apply to slavery, as for instance, he would speak of the creation of the world, in which he would say all men had equal rights, blacks as well as whites, &c. all his religious remarks were mingled with slavery.
Letter to Charleston Courier (1822)
Annotation
Not all Charlestonians succumbed to the panic ensuing from the court-driven slave insurrection scare there in 1822. This article caused quite a controversy in the white community.
Primary Source(s)
The following anecdote may be relied on as a simple narrative of facts, which actually occurred within the recollection of thousands. In the year 1810-1811, Mr. Blount being Governor of North Carolina, Mr. Milledge of Georgia, and Mr. Drayton of South Carolina, the two latter states were thrown into great alarm by a letter transmitted from Gov. Blount to Gov. Milledge, and by the latter despatched by express to Gov. Drayton. The militia of the two states, in the counties adjacent to Augusta, were ordered to be held in readiness for action, en masse, and Guards and Patrols to scour the country. The sufferings of the inhabitants, particularly the females, from apprehensions painfully excited, induced a gentleman of this city, then a resident near Augusta, to call on the Governor, then residing near that place, and request a sight of the letter. At the first glance of the eye he pronounced it a hoax: for it bore date on the 1st April. And he had been picked up in one of the country towns in North Carolina, where it had in fact been dropped by some thoughtless schoolboys. On the face of it also it bore such evidence of its origin, as must have stuck any observer whose vision was not distorted by alarm. For it was dated Augusta, signed "Your loving brother Captain Jack," and purported to be directed to an associate in Lewisville, North Carolina. But it was in vain that these suggestions were made. The Governor of Georgia could not brook the mortifying discovery of his having been duped, and the whole country, on the designated night was kept in agitated motion.
Happy had it terminated in nothing more than the suffering and disturbance communicated to the people of both states, and the useless expenditure of some thousands of public money. But another hoax gave it a most tragical termination.
The trumpeter of the Augusta Cavalry resided in the opposite district of Edgefield, and orders had been issued to him to attend the company that night. By some accident those orders did not reach him in time to make Augusta that evening, and he halted at Moore's mills, on Chever's creek, in South Carolina. Here he and a companion were shown into a garret, where they were amusing themselves over their pint of whiskey, when the continual passing and repassing of the mounted militia drew their attention; and the half intoxicated bugle-man resolved to try the effect of a blast of his music upon the fears of a party just gone by. The effect was electrical; it was deemed the expected signal; the detachments gallopped off in all directions in quest of the offender, and towards morning returned with a single poor half-witted negro, who had been taken crossing a field on his way home, without instrument of war or of music. But none else could be found, and he alone could have given the significant blast, which so many had heard. It was in vain that he denied it: he was first whipped severely to extort a confession, and then, with his eyes bound, commanded to prepare for instant death from a sabre, which a horseman was in the act of sharpening beside him.
He now recollected that a man named Billy, belonging to Capt. Key, had one of those long tubes which boatmen use on our rivers, and declared that had sounded the horn, and done it at the command of Capt. Key's men; but still denied all sort of combination, and affirmed the innocence of the act.
An armed force was immediately detached to the house of Billy, and there found him quietly sleeping in the midst of a large family, in a degree of comfort very unusual for a slave—for Billy was a blacksmith, a fellow of uncommon worth, and indulged in such privileges by his master as his fidelity justly merited.
But in one corner of his house, exposed to the view of every one, was found the terrific horn, and he was hurried away to be tried for his life. The Court of Magistrates and Freeholders was selected from men of the first respectability in the neighborhood; and yet it is a fact, although no evidence was given whatever as to a motive for sounding the horn, and the horn was actually found covered and even filled with cobwebs, they condemned that man to die the next day!—and, what will scarcely be believed, they actually received evidence of his having been once charged with stealing a pig, to substantiate the charge upon which he then stood on trial. Respectable bystanders have declared, that his guilt or innocence as to the pig soon took the lead of every other question on the trial.—The owner, one of the worthiest men in the country, thunderstruck at the sentence, entreated a more deliberated hearing; but not being listened to, hastened away to his friends, and among them a judicial character in the neighborhood, to unite their entreaties with his. They promptly attended to his solicitations, procured a meeting of the court, and earnestly pressed the injustice and precipitation of the sentence, and their right to time to solicit a pardon, but in vain. The presiding magistrate actually conceived his dignity attacked, and threatened impeachment against the judge who, as an individual, had interfered only to prevent a legal murder; and interferred upon the witness, retracting all he had testified to.
Billy was hung amongst crowds of execrating spectators;—and such appeared to be the popular demand for a victim, that it is not certain a pardon could have saved him.
Citation
Anonymous communication to the Charleston Courier, June 21, 1822 (written by Charlestonian William Johnson, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, published under header, "Melancholy Effect of Popular Excitement."
Anna Hayes Johnson Letter (1822)
Annotation
This letter, written by Anna Hayes Johnson, a white Charleston woman, to a family member, represents an excellent example of the power of rumor and hearsay in spreading details of the alleged rebellion throughout the area.
Primary Source(s)
Excerpt from Anna Hayes Johnson's letter of July 18, 1822:
My dear Cousin,
. . . I suppose that by this time you are anxious to hear more about the unhappy business which has filled with consternation all our city and nothing but the merciful interposition of our God has saved us from horror equal if not superior to the scenes acted in St. Domingo—The catalogue is not filled up for we thought that it was ended and that the execution of six of the chiefs would suffice. The court had been dismissed and the town was again sinking into its wanted security when information was given that another attempt would be made at such a time, and the states witness gave information of such a nature as to induce the city council to recall the court, and since that period the alarm has spread most widely, and there are now between 50 & 60 of the leaders in our jail—It is said that twenty of them have been convicted & sentenced, and in all probability the execution will not end under 100, but I was told yesterday that the prisoners had been heard to say that even should there be 500 executed there would be still enough to carry the work into execution. Denmark Vesey one of those already executed and who was the instigator of the whole plot acknowledged that he had been nine years endeavoring to effect the diabolical scheme, how far the mischief has extended heaven only knows—I never heard in my life more deep laid plots or plots more likely to succeed, indeed "t'was a good plot—an excellent plot."
But t'was a plot that had it succeeded would have told to after ages a most fearful tale—it would be absurd in me to attempt a detail of all the circumstances real or imaginary which I have heard—this much is all that I know of that bears the stamp of truth: that their intention was to take the city and keep it as long as possible and then carry us & the common negro's to St D there to be sold as slaves with as much plunder as they could find. It seems that this Vesey had been to St D adn made an agreement that at such a time so many Vessels should be here to assist—it would have been a complete scene of desolation—as yet thank God none of our slaves have been found in the plot, tho' there are 20 of them in [—? illegible] in the yard.
. . . Farewell God Bless you
Anna
Citation
Anna Hayes Johnson to her cousin, Charleston, July 18, 1822. From the Ernest Haywood Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina Library.
Primary Source Annotated Bibliography
Starobin, Robert S., ed. Denmark Vesey: The Slave Conspiracy of 1822. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970.
This is an excellent edited collection of primary source materials stemming from the trials in 1822. It includes the Official Report, two confessions, and a selection of white writings in reaction to the plot.
Library of Congress. Slaves and the Courts: 1740-1860.
This American Memory collection includes 8,700 pages of court decisions and arguments, reports, proceedings, and journals related to the experiences of slaves in the colonies and their courts, including the original report on the Denmark Vesey trials.
PBS Online. Africans in America.
Though it contains no primary sources directly related to Denmark Vesey, it offers several primary sources related to other prominent colonial-era figures, including Phillis Wheatley, first published African American poet in the colonies; self-emancipated slave Venture Smith; and Lucy Terry Prince, freedwoman and gifted speaker.
Secondary Source Annotated Bibliography
Egerton, Douglas R. He Shall Go Out Free: The Lives of Denmark Vesey. Madison: Madison House, 1999.
A sweeping biography of Denmark Vesey that imagines him as a great rebel leader in the 19th-century Atlantic world.
Freehling, William C. Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, 1816-1836. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
A classic examination of the political culture of antebellum South Carolina that highlights the ways in which anxieties about slavery were exacerbated by the aborted Denmark Vesey rebellion.
Pearson, Edward R., ed. Designs Against Charleston: The Trial Record of the Denmark Vesey Slave Conspiracy of 1822. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
NOTE: This source is now out of print. One of three recent re-examinations of the Vesey conspiracy that sees Vesey as a heroic but doomed rebel leader, it also includes an error-riddled transcription of the Official Report produced by the Charleston court in 1822. Now out of print.
Robertson, David. Denmark Vesey: The Buried History of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It. New York: Knopf, 1999.
This biography portrays Denmark Vesey as a messianic leader who sought to liberate blacks—both slave and free—from the cruelty and suffering of life in a slave society.
Wade, Richard C. "The Vesey Plot: A Reconsideration." The Journal of Southern History 30:2 (1964): 143–161.
NOTE: JSTOR access required to read online. In this essay, Professor Wade was the first historian to question seriously the reliability of the Official Report and to suggest that Denmark Vesey may have been framed. Most historians until recently rejected Wade's argument.
Wikramanayake, Marina. "A World in Shadow: The Free Black in Antebellum South Carolina." Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1973.
NOTE: JSTOR access required to read online. An examination of the identity of the free black in South Carolina that questions the accuracy of the Official Report
"Forum: The Making of a Slave Conspiracy, part 1." William and Mary Quarterly 58:4 (October 2001).
Part 1 consists solely of Michael P. Johnson's essay reviewing three recent books on the Vesey rebellion and interrogating their arguments and usage of evidence. This essay in some ways resurrected Richard C. Wade's nearly 40-year-old argument that Vesey was framed.
"Forum: The Making of a Slave Conspiracy, part 2." William and Mary Quarterly, 59:1 (January 2002).
Part 2 consists of responses by Douglas R. Egerton, Edward A. Pearson, and David Robertson, the authors of the three recent books reviewed by Johnson in Part 1. It also includes additional essays by five prominent historians of slavery and a closing response by Michael P. Johnson. The "Forum" represents the best single source for understanding the contours of the historical debate concerning Denmark Vesey.
Kirt von Daacke is Associate Professor and Department Chair of History at Lynchburg College. 
