Insurrection leader, probably born on St Thomas, West Indies. The property of Captain Vesey, a Charleston, SC slave trader and planter, he spent 20 years sailing with his master. In 1800 he purchased his freedom (allegedly having won a lottery), took up carpentry in Charleston, and prospered at his trade. By 1818 he was preaching to slaves at plantations throughout the region and, drawing on the Bible, he told them that, like the Israelites, they would gain their freedom. Although he would later deny it, he allegedly held meetings at his home to collect arms for an uprising he was planning for as many as 9000 African-Americans in South Carolina. The plan was betrayed by several fearful slaves and he and others were seized. He defended himself ably at his trial, but was sentenced and hanged along with c.35 blacks; some 35 others were sold to West Indian plantation owners. It would have been the largest slave revolt in US history, but its end result was the passing of even stricter laws against African-Americans.
Denmark Vesey (originally Telemaque, 1767?-1822) was an African American slave and, later, a freeman, who is alleged to have planned what would have been a large slave rebellion had word of the plans not been leaked.
Eventually, many came to regard Vesey as a hero.
Early Life
In 1781, Vesey was purchased by Captain Joseph Vesey from the Danish Caribbean island of St. Thomas. He labored briefly in French Saint Domingue (present day Haiti), and then settled in Charleston, South Carolina as a youth, where Joseph Vesey kept him as a domestic slave.
The Vesey Conspiracy
Inspired by the revolutionary spirit and actions of slaves in Saint Domingue (known today as the 1791 Haitian Revolution), and furious at the closing of the African Church, Vesey began to plan what would have been the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history. The plot called for Vesey and his group of slaves and free blacks to slay their masters and temporarily seize the city of Charleston. Shortly after the rebellion was to take place, Vesey and his followers planned to sail to Haiti to escape retaliation. The plot was leaked by two slaves opposed to Vesey's scheme, and 131 people were charged with conspiracy by Charleston authorities.
One of his sons, Sandy Vesey, was transported, probably to Cuba, and his last wife, Susan, later emigrated to Liberia.
Recent scholarship by Michael Johnson, of Johns Hopkins University, gave a new twist to the old theory that the Vesey Conspiracy was nothing more than angry talk. 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 asserts that alongside questionable court records, no other material evidence exists of Vesey's plans to lead the revolt. However, opponents observe that a number of blacks familiar with Vesey or the Reverend Morris Brown, especially free black carpenter Thomas Brown, spoke about the plot in later years.
Regardless of which side is right, Robert Tinkler (2004), a biographer of Mayor Hamilton, argues that the mayor actually believed there was a slave plot.
In Fiction
Denmark Vesey is also 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.
There is also a reference to Vesey in Martin Delany's 19th-century novel, Blake, as well as in the drama by Dorothy Heywood, Set My People Free.
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