38
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(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—SLAVE UPRISINGS AND INSURREC-
TIONS.)
An Account of the Late Intended Insurrection Among a Portion of the
Blacks of this City
43 pages, disbound; early stapling at the spine; a small portion (3 x 7.5
cm) of the title-page also repaired at an early date; some light mottling throughout
Charleston: A. E. Miller, 1822
[2,500/3,500]
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST AND BEST ACCOUNT OF THE DENMARK VESEY SLAVE
UPRISING
.
By all accounts, Denmark was a very intelligent and charismatic character. Early in
life he was sold and worked as a slave briefly in Saint Domingue. But was then taken back by
the same Bermudian sea captain (Joseph Vesey) who had named him and sold him in the first
place. Denmark was prone to epileptic fits, and thus considered “unfit.” Captain Vesey kept
him as a personal assistant until he retired to Charleston. There, in 1799 Denmark won a
$1500 city lottery, bought his own freedom and began to work as a carpenter. In 1817,
Denmark co-founded a branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, but it was closed
down, possibly because of his preaching and talks of Toussaint and the Haitian Revolution.
The church was reopened in 1820 and it was around this time that Vesey began preaching the
overthrow of slavery and revolution. A plan was made to start an insurrection symbolically on
Bastille Day, July 14, 1822. Somehow this plan became known to thousands of blacks
throughout Charleston and along the Carolina coast. The plot called for Vesey and a group of
slaves - as well as free blacks - to execute their owners and liberate the city of Charleston. Vesey
and his followers then planned to sail to Haiti to escape retaliation. Two slaves opposed to
Vesey’s scheme leaked the plot. Charleston authorities charged 131 men with conspiracy. In
total, 67 men were convicted and 35 hanged, including Denmark Vesey himself.
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