Denmark Vesey: The Buried Story of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led ItIn a remarkable feat of historical detective work, David Robertson illuminates the shadowy figure who planned a slave rebellion so daring that, if successful, it might have changed the face of the antebellum South. This is the story of a man who, like Nat Turner, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X, is a complex yet seminal hero in the history of African American emancipation. Denmark Vesey was a charasmatic ex-slave--literate, professional, and relatively well-off--who had purchased his own freedom with the winnings from a lottery. Inspired by the success of the revolutionary black republic in Haiti, he persuaded some nine thousand slaves to join him in a revolt. On a June evening in 1822, having gathered guns, and daggers, they were to converge on Charleston, South Carolina, take the city's arsenal, murder the populace, burn the city, and escape by ship to Haiti or Africa. When the uprising was betrayed, Vesey and seventy-seven of his followers were executed, the matter hushed by Charleston's elite for fear of further rebellion. Compelling, informative, and often disturbing, this book is essential to a fuller understanding of the struggle against slavery. |
Contents
The Darkness of Slavery | 117 |
Remembering Denmark Vesey | 131 |
The List of Those | 155 |
Acknowledgments | 167 |
Index | 174 |
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A.M.E. church A.M.E. congregation African Church American Arrested on July Ashley Avenue Barbadians Barbados black slaves Black Theology Blake's Lands Bryan Bulkley Farm Bull Street Captain Vesey Caribbean century Charles Town Charleston Courier Charleston District Christian city of Charleston city's coconspirators colonial Confession conspirators court Denmark Vesey economic free black freedom French Negroes Governor Gullah Jack Haiti Hanged on July Harth Higginson historical Ibid insurrection Intendant Hamilton Islam island John judges July 26 June June 16 Malcolm X mark Vesey Meeting Street Monday Gell mulatto Narrative night Official Report olina owners Parker's Ferry Peter Poyas plantation planters political population Prioleau Pritchard Rebellion rebels recorded recruits residence Robert Mills Robert Vesey Rolla Bennett Sable Curtain slave revolt slave ship slavery South Car South Carolina southern Stono Stono Rebellion Stono River testimony Thomas Higginson tion told Trial twentieth-century USC Press Vesey plot Vesey's execution Vesey's house Vesey's revolt white Charlestonians white masters