Sixty-seven people are convicted of trying to…

Sixty-seven people are convicted of trying to raise an insurrection in the trials that follow Vesey's "rebellion"; of these, thirty-five, including Vesey, are hanged (in what is perhaps the largest civilian execution in United States history); thirty-two are condemned to exile “beyond the limits of the United States”. (Historian Michael Johnson, a professor of history at Johns Hopkins, concludes in 2001 not only that Vesey was innocent of organizing a slave rebellion but also that, in fact, no rebellion conspiracy ever existed—except in the frightened minds of white slaveholders, who, Johnson argues, coerced testimony from a handful of slaves and free blacks to convict Vesey and the others.) (The Johns Hopkins Gazette: October 22, 2001)