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Denmark Vesey

c.1767-1822

Name: Denmark Vesey [aka Telemarque]

Status: Former slave

Occupation: Seaman, Carpenter, Minister, Revolutionary

Residence: Haiti, Africa, SC

Abolitionist Involvement: Although free Negroes were often suspected of participating in and/or encouraging insurrections, very few have been documented as having done so. Denmark Vesey, alias Telemarque, is one of the exceptions.

Born about 1767, Vesey was a slave to a sea captain, for whom he toiled onboard ship for many years. He had traveled extensively in this capacity, and had lived with his owner in both Haiti and Africa. It is said that Vesey bought his freedom with $1,500.00 which he had won in a lottery about 1799-1800, when he was in his thirties. From that time, he lived in Charleston, SC, where he worked as a carpenter, and was minister at an African Methodist church. He was offered several opportunities to emigrate to Africa as a free man, but refused to go, perhaps because his wife and children remained enslaved. By 1817, he had saved several thousand dollars, but for some reason was apparently unable to purchase them.

About this time, white Methodists in Charleston began trying to take control of the African Methodist churches there, which had previously been able to collect and administer their own funds. When the Blacks fought the new system, their religious leaders were periodically arrested and punished. In 1818, after a dispute with white Methodists over a burial ground, the Blacks withdrew from the white dominated churches and appointed Morris Brown to be their bishop at Charleston. In retaliation, the key church in the Black Methodist movement was closed. This appears to have been the final stimulus for Vesey's revolt, which he saw as a Holy War and intended as a means of "deliverance" for his people. He often read the Bible to his recruits, and quoted Scriptures involving war to them. In addition, "Gullah Jack", an Angolan who was an African priest believed to be invincible, was appointed as one of his lieutenants, and was encouraged and allowed to add traditional African magic to their religious mix.

Plans were made, recruits instructed, and workmen and artisans chosen to prepare all that might be needed when the time was right. Some of the members of the network lived as far away as 80 miles from Charleston. It is not clear what the ultimate goal might have been. Immediate goals were to capture the arsenal, burn the area and kill whites. Vesey and his followers believed that they would receive aid from either Haiti or Africa, or could easily escape to one of these countries if it became necessary to do so. Another lieutenant, Monday Gell, is said to have corresponded with the president of Haiti, but this has not been proved. Other lieutenants were Rolla Bennett, and brothers Ned and Peter Poyas. Before the scheduled date of the revolt, however, the plot was betrayed by a slave who told his master, and the conspirators were unable to get their network in motion earlier than had been scheduled for July 1822.

Arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to death, Vesey, his lieutenants, and about thirty others were hanged. The exact number of conspirators is unknown as those captured all refused to inform on their comrades; they died bravely, serving as models of strength in the Black community. Both the state militia and federal troops had to be called in to hold back Black demonstrators and maintain order, and more repressive restrictions were placed on slaves as a result.

Vesey's former home at 56 Bull Street in Charleston was declared a National Historical Landmark in 1976, and carries a marker; it is a private residence, however, and is not open to the public.

Family: 2 Wives and several children, all of whom were slaves.

Place of Death: SC

References: Holy Warriors, by Jack Stewart; Roll Jordan Roll, by Eugene Genovese; There is a River, by Vincent Harding; The Shaping of Black America, by Lerone Bennett; Hippocrene Guide to the Underground Railroad, by Charles Blockson.

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