Denmark Vesey, born circa 1767, probably in…

Denmark Vesey, born circa 1767, probably in St. Thomas, Danish West Indies, or possibly in Africa, labored briefly in Saint-Domingue and was sold as a boy in 1781 to a Bermuda slaver captain named Joseph Vesey.

Assuming his master's surname (his first name being a corruption of Télémaque, the French version of the Oddysey’s Telemachus), he had accompanied him on numerous voyages and in 1783 had settled with his owner in Charleston.

In 1800, Denmark had been allowed to purchase his freedom for six hundred of the fifteen hundred dollars he had won in the East Bay Street lottery.

The fact that his children, born of a slave mother, had remained the property of her master had supposedly aroused his resentment.

Already familiar with the great Haitian slave revolt of the 1790s, Vesey reads antislavery literature while working as a carpenter.

Dissatisfied with his second-class status as a freedman and determined to help relieve the far more oppressive conditions of bondsmen he knows, Vesey is outspoken in his opposition to slavery, often quoting from the Bible to prove the injustices of the “peculiar institution”.

According to later court documents, Vesey allegedly planned and organized an uprising of city and plantation blacks.

His plan reportedly called for the rebels to attack guardhouses and arsenals, seize their arms, kill all whites, burn and destroy the city, free the slaves, and take ship to Haiti.

The plot (according to those who believe that it existed) may have involved as many as nine thousand blacks (though some scholars dispute this figure).

Supposedly, the date for the attack iwas originally July 14, 1822, but was subsequently advanced to June 16.

White authorities, claiming to have been warned of an impending slave rebellion in June by a house servant, make massive military preparations in order to forestall the insurrection on the eve of the scheduled outbreak.

One hundred and thirty-nine black people are arrested during the ensuing two months, including Vesey.

In addition, four white men are fined and imprisoned for allegedly encouraging the plot.