Denmark Vesey (c. 1767-1822) was a free Black man living in Charleston, South Carolina, as a carpenter and community leader. A former slave himself, Vesey became involved in the antislavery movement and was accused of planning a large-scale slave revolt in 1822. He was arrested and executed by hanging on 2 July 1822 alongside five alleged co-conspirators.
Early Life
Almost nothing is known about the childhood or ancestry of the man who would become Denmark Vesey. His most commonly accepted birthyear, 1767, is surmised from the fact that he was listed as about 14 years old when he was purchased in 1781. He was probably born into slavery on the Danish colony of St. Thomas in the Caribbean, although some scholars suspect that he had actually been born in West Africa and taken to St. Thomas as an infant by Danish slavers. The identities of his parents have been lost to history, but if he still lived with them as a child, they would have likely resided in a 'village' of 50-60 small huts, as was typical of how enslaved people lived on St. Thomas. The lack of knowledge of Vesey's early life exemplifies the degradation with which enslaved people were regarded. As biographer Douglas Egerton puts it:
Perhaps nothing speaks more eloquently about the dehumanizing nature of Atlantic slavery than the fact that one of the most influential abolitionists in antebellum America lacks a known birthplace and birthdate and, for approximately the first fourteen years of his life, even a name.
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The first documented fact about his life was that, in the autumn of 1781, he was purchased by Captain Joseph Vesey, a slave merchant from Bermuda. Captain Vesey was a lifelong sailor who had made a fortune privateering on behalf of the Patriots during the American Revolution before entering the slave trade in 1780. Having docked at St. Thomas, Vesey was in the process of loading 390 enslaved people onto his ship when the young Denmark caught his eye; the captain would later claim to have been stricken by the teenager's "beauty, alertness, and intelligence". Rather than chain the lad below deck with the others, the captain made him into his cabin boy, wishing for him to become "the ship's pet and plaything" (quoted in Egerton, 16). Evidently, Captain Vesey's strange fixation on the lad was fleeting, as when the slave ship reached Saint Domingue (Haiti), he sold him off along with the rest of his human cargo.
The French colony of Saint Domingue was the most lucrative of the Caribbean sugar islands, but it also offered the most brutal living conditions for its enslaved population. Slaves spent their days laboring in the fields beneath a scorching sun, while their nights were spent crushing up sugarcane in the mills, and many slaves were worked to death. Egerton reports that "older slaves often worked a twenty-hour day as they cropped, hauled, ground, and filtered the [sugar] cane" (19). Denmark – who as of yet had no name – was likely horrified by the hellish conditions of Saint Domingue. But, as Captain Vesey had noted, the lad was intelligent and was not about to let himself be worked to death in such a way. Shortly after arriving in Saint Domingue, he began having 'epileptic fits' that prevented him from working in the fields; when Captain Vesey returned to Saint Domingue in April 1782, Denmark's owner demanded a refund, accusing the captain of having knowingly sold him an epileptic slave. The captain agreed to the refund and took Denmark back into his service as a cabin boy. Only then, once they were far away from Saint Domingue, did the seizures miraculously stop.
Captain Vesey was no fool. Having realized that Denmark had outwitted the Saint Domingue slaveholder, he knew that he had been too hasty to sell him. Over the next several months, Captain Vesey made use of Denmark's intelligence, utilizing him as his personal assistant and, on occasion, even as an interpreter, since the young lad was already proficient in French and Spanish as well as English. The captain even bestowed upon him a name – Telemaque (in reference to Telemachus, son of the crafty hero Odysseus from the epics of Homer). It was in this capacity that young Denmark saw the world, but it also forced him to participate in the slave trade; in 1782, he was forced to take stock of a new batch of human cargo from West Africa as they were inhumanely chained below decks. Although he was now living a better life than most slaves, Denmark was still enslaved himself and knew that many of those being packed on Vesey's ship were destined for a cruel and bitter life in bondage. He wanted to help them, but he did not yet know how.
Life in Charleston
In 1783, Captain Joseph Vesey gave up his life at sea and settled in Charleston, South Carolina. Here, he began a new career as a ship chandler and merchant, importing several different commodities, including slaves. Of course, Denmark lived with Captain Vesey as his enslaved manservant and was often used to help conduct business; on certain occasions, Denmark was even allowed to negotiate on his master's behalf, showcasing his talent as well as the trust that the captain apparently placed in him. For the next 17 years, Denmark would live as a slave in Charleston, during which time he became well-acquainted with the city's Black community. He even married an enslaved woman named Beck, with whom he would have at least three sons – Sandy, Polydore, and Robert. As he mingled in this community, he found that other slaves had difficulty pronouncing his name Telemaque and would call him 'Telmak'. From this, the name 'Denmark' was derived, a name that doubled as a reminder of his origins on the Danish St. Thomas.
Like many other slaves, Denmark often rented out his labor on the docks, hoping to make enough money to one day buy his freedom. He also periodically bought city lottery tickets, likely never dreaming that he would win but indulging in the fantasy of being able to free himself and his family. But on 9 November 1799, that fantasy would become a reality – Denmark won $1,500 in a lottery. After negotiating with Captain Vesey, he bought his freedom for $600, with the papers finalized on the last day of the 18th century. At 32 years old, Denmark was a free man. He chose 'Vesey' as his surname, either as a nod to his former master or because he knew that the name was well-respected and might earn him some business. With the rest of his winnings, he tried to buy the freedom of his wife and children, but unfortunately, their owners would not sell. The fact that Beck was still enslaved put an enormous amount of stress on their marriage, which was ultimately ended shortly after Denmark bought his freedom. But by all accounts, Denmark did not let the end of his marriage destroy his family. He employed Beck's daughter from a previous relationship as his cook and often visited his sons. He helped teach Sandy how to read and would eventually show Robert how to be a carpenter.
Indeed, Vesey had decided to make a living as a carpenter and spent the rest of his winnings on obtaining an apprenticeship. As a Black man, he had to obtain a special license to open his own business, but it was not long before he was operating a successful carpentry shop out of the one-floor house he rented on 20 Bull Street, employing other freedmen. Charismatic and hardworking, Vesey was soon well-respected and well-liked by both White and Black customers, though his road to success was not easy. In South Carolina, free Blacks were legally barred from earning more than $1.00 a day and also had to pay a special tax on their freedom. Vesey managed to circumvent these restrictions, and by the end of his life, he had a net worth of $8,000, which was quite a lot of money for a man in his position.
Seeds of Revolt
Despite his new life as a freedman and the success of his carpentry shop, Vesey could not forget his origins as a slave, nor the horrors he had witnessed on Saint Domingue and in Charleston. The fact that he was helpless to rescue his own children from their enslavement constantly "ate at [his] mind", as one biographer put it. Once, in a conversation with a friend, Vesey confided that "all his children were [born] slaves, [and] he wished to see what could be done for them" (quoted in Egerton, 82). Highly literate from his days as Captain Vesey's manservant, Denmark Vesey read every antislavery book and pamphlet he could get his hands on. One acquaintance stopped by his house to find him reading a book "on the complexion of people". According to the book, it was the rays of the African sun that turned their skin black; how then, Vesey asked his friend, could the sun's rays make a race of man inferior, as the White slaveholders claimed? Vesey also read extensively on the Haitian Revolution, in which the slaves of Saint Domingue rose up in a bloody rebellion against their White oppressors.
As time went on, Vesey started making small acts of resistance. In a society where Black people were expected to dress in drab clothes, Vesey dressed ostentatiously in elegant outfits. He avoided all White authority figures that visited his home, even managing to dodge the census takers. On occasion, he would go to the bar where both White and Black workers congregated and would make loud denunciations of slavery to the "shock of both races" (Egerton, 100). Whenever he passed a White person on the street, Vesey would always make sure to look them straight in the eye. Once, upon seeing an enslaved friend bow to a White man in public, Vesey rebuked him by stating that he would "never cringe to the whites, nor ought anyone who had the feelings of a man" (quoted in Egerton, 99). When the friend replied that he was only a slave, Vesey snapped, "then you deserve to remain a slave." Vesey's fiery temper meant that many Blacks were intimidated by him, with one man claiming that he "endeavored to avoid him" (ibid). However, his large size and clear strength meant that few people dared to challenge him when he made these acts of defiance.
By 1818, the 51-year-old Vesey had joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME); he was an early, perhaps founding, member of the church on Cow Alley. The creation of an all-Black church was in itself a radical act since it challenged the prevailing idea of African intellectual inferiority and encouraged autonomy in the Black community. In June 1818, White authorities tried several times to close the church, arresting over 100 members of the congregation, but were ultimately unsuccessful. While the reverend and many other church officials preached nonviolence, Vesey, who led a class at the church after sunset, "preached his gospel of liberty and hate" (quoted in Egerton, 113). Invoking the wrathful God of the Old Testament, Vesey demanded retribution against the White oppressors and quoted Exodus 21:16, which states that "he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death". By 1820, as the national debate over the Missouri Compromise fanned the flames of the slavery question, Vesey found that he had a small group of loyal disciples. David Walker, who would one day pen the seminal abolitionist pamphlet An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, is believed to have listened to Vesey's sermons, as did Rolla Bennett, an enslaved man owned by the governor, and 'Gullah' Jack Pritchard, an eccentric priest from East Africa.
The Conspiracy
By Christmas 1821, Vesey decided to take action. To keep word of his conspiracy from leaking out, he initially shared it with only four men he knew from the AME Church and he knew he could rely on – Rolla Bennett, Jack Pritchard, Monday Gell, and Peter Poyas. These four were to act as his lieutenants and recruit their own companies of 'soldiers'; this way, if someone turned traitor, he could only give up the man who had recruited him and would not threaten the entire conspiracy. Vesey had also chosen these men because each had access to a different group of Blacks; Poyas, an enslaved shipwright, was familiar with the Black craftsmen along the docks, while Gell knew many of the slaves who worked in the fields across the river.
So, Vesey gathered these four men and explained his plan. At midnight on the chosen evening, the house servants of Charleston would kill their masters in their beds; Bennett would kill both the governor and the mayor, introducing an additional layer of chaos. Immediately afterwards, urban slaves would take to the streets and go to the positions assigned to them, while slaves moving up from Charleston Neck were to set fire to designated buildings and kill the White inhabitants as they stumbled from their homes. Peter Poyas would be in charge of leading the attack on the militia arsenal on Meeting Street; since this street was mostly Black, Vesey hoped that the arsenal could be stormed before the state militia could be mustered. The rebels would then go home and gather their wives and children before meeting on the docks. Then, like a modern-day Moses, Vesey would lead them into an exodus, setting sail for the Republic of Haiti.
Although the plan was certainly risky, Vesey had reason to believe it would succeed. He had the numerical advantage: according to the 1820 census, the Charleston region was home to around 57,221 slaves and 3,615 free Blacks compared to only 19,376 Whites. It was his hope that many of the Blacks who were not already in on the conspiracy would take up arms once the revolt was set in motion. Vesey was also encouraged by the dilapidated conditions of Charleston's fortifications, which the federal Board of Engineers had recently assessed as being "worse than useless" (Egerton, 130). Finally, the Republic of Haiti had offered to take in any escaped slave who reached its shores; while the Haitians would likely be reluctant to risk the wrath of the United States by taking in an army of rebellious slaves, Vesey hoped that the weaponry and money they would be taking with them would sweeten the deal. In the early months of 1822, Vesey's lieutenants began recruiting, and the revolt was set for Bastille Day, 14 July 1822.
Arrest & Execution
On 22 May 1822, a little more than a month before the appointed date, the conspiracy began to unravel. A man named William Paul, one of the more minor recruits, was talking with an enslaved man named Peter on the Charleston docks when the topic of Haiti came up – Paul took this opportunity to invite Peter into the conspiracy. When Peter reacted with revulsion to the idea of killing his master, Paul desperately tried to tell him to keep quiet, but it was too late. Peter told his master what he had heard, who, in turn, wrote a letter to James Hamilton, intendant (mayor) of Charleston. Although Hamilton and the city council attached "little credence" to these whispers of revolt, they nevertheless decided to arrest William Paul for questioning. Paul initially refused to acknowledge anything, but after being threatened with solitary confinement, he gave up two names, including Peter Poyas.
As soon as Vesey heard of Paul's imprisonment, he decided to move the date of the uprising forward to 16 June. On 9 June, Rolla Bennett met with his friend, an enslaved man named George Wilson, warning him to either join the conspiracy or "go out of town on Sunday night" so he would not be hurt. Wilson was deeply disturbed by the conspiracy and, along with his friend Joe LaRoche, went to Mayor Hamilton with their information. This made the city officials take the idea of a large-scale conspiracy more seriously. Bennett was arrested, and on 15 June, Vesey burned any incriminating books and papers before going into hiding. In the meantime, state militiamen patrolled the city, dashing any hope that the rebellion could still take place.
On 20 June, Vesey's name was mentioned for the first time as the "instigator and chief of this plot" leading to a two-day-long manhunt throughout the Charleston region. He was finally discovered hiding in the home of his ex-wife, Beck, and was arrested. Vesey and the other suspects were held in the Charleston Workhouse for several days until a Court of Magistrates and Freeholders was established to try them. None of the conspirators expressed their guilt, and there was no evidence against them other than hearsay, yet they were nevertheless found guilty and sentenced to death; several prominent officials, including Governor Thomas Bennett, criticized the tribunal for breaking with judicial protocol. In the end, the court arrested 135 people, 35 of whom were ultimately executed; Vesey was hanged alongside five other alleged co-conspirators on 2 July 1822. Though he never confessed to planning the revolt, he met his death convinced that he was dying for a "glorious cause" (Howe, 163). Though his uprising never took place, Denmark Vesey is regarded as a significant abolitionist figure in the Antebellum South, who inspired many of those who came after him.
