BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Timeline of Events
1757
The boy who will become known as Denmark Vesey is born, probably on the island of St. Thomas, a Danish colony in the Virgin Islands.
1776
The Declaration of Independence is ratified. The Continental Congress issue Letters of Marque authorizing private sea captains to prey on British ships. Capt. Joseph Vesey takes up this offer and becomes wealthy. When the British seize the Port of Charleston, he takes his ship to the Caribbean and begins trading in slaves.
1781
Capt. Joseph Vesey purchases a 14 year old boy in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas and names him “Telemaque” after the mythical Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. Telemaque, along with 390 other slaves is sold to buyers on the French colony of Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti).
1782
After it is reported that Telemaque suffers from fits, he is returned to Capt. Vesey, who takes him on as a cabin boy. The fits mysteriously disappear.
1783
Capt. Vesey takes up residence in Charleston, bringing Telemaque with him.
1789
The French Revolution begins.
1790
Sparked by the French Revolution freedman in Haiti petition the National Assembly to a make them full citizens. When this is refused, violence breaks out.
1791
Haitian Revolution explodes with the “Night of Fire” as slaves burn fields of sugarcane. Soon the half million slaves on Haiti revolt. Many whites from Haiti flee to Charleston. Capt. Joseph Vesey becomes treasurer of a group to raise funds to support these refugees.
1799
(November 9) Telemaque wins $1,500 in the East Bay lottery.
1800
(January 1) Telemaque buys his freedom for $600 and about this time elects (as is the right a of freedman) to take a surname. He chooses Vesey, taken from Capt. Vesey. Either through corruption of the name Telemaque or perhaps because of his origins from the Danish Colony of St. Thomas, Telemaque becomes Denmark.
1803
Haitian independence is declared. Though not recognized by other nations, it becomes the first black republic.
1808
An act of Congress, forbidding the importation of slaves from Africa takes effect.
1816
Free blacks from 5 states meet in Philadelphia to form the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
1817
4,376 black members of Bethel Methodist Church leave in protest after a dispute over construction of a building over a black cemetery.
1818
Charleston’s first African Methodist Episcopal Church is built. In June, 140 freemen and slaves are arrested for holding services and meetings in violation of the City’s ordinances which forbid worship after sunset.
1820
A new law forbids masters from freeing their slaves without petitioning the General Assembly for permission.
1821
The Rev. Morris Brown warned by City council not to allow classes at the AME church to become “schools for slaves.”
1822
May 30 - Slave Peter Prioleau, having overheard rumors of a planned insurrection at the waterfront, reveals what he heard to his master who immediately tells the City’s Intendant (Mayor). Paul is arrested and placed in solitary confinement. He implicates Peter Poyas and William Harth.
May 31 - Poyas and Harth are arrested but laugh when confronted with the allegations of the plot. This convinces the authorities of their innocence and they are released but put under surveillance. William Paul is kept in solitary confinement.
June 14 - Another slave, George Wilson, reveals the plot to his master, saying he had learned of it from slaves in Governor Bennett’s household.
Saturday, June 15 - Governor Bennett orders the arrest of 4 accused plotters including members of his own household.
Sunday, June 16 - Despite the effort of the authorities to keep the discovery of the plot quiet (there had been no mention in the press), the City is alive with rumors and most white Charlestonians stay up this night, which is rumored to be the night the insurrection is to begin.
June 19 - The first trial begins.
June 20 - An inmate, probably William Paul who has now been in solitary confinement for 28 days and threatened with hanging if he does not reveal more, implicates Vesey as the leader of in the insurrection.
June 21 - U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Charleston resident William Johnson anonymously publishes an article in the Charleston Courier implying that these trials are grossly unconventional and unjust.
June 22 - Denmark Vesey is arrested hiding at the home of his second wife.
June 26 - Denmark Vesey’s trial begins. Though the Judges assert he addressed the court, none of Denmark Vesey’s words are recorded in the transcripts.
July 2 - Denmark Vesey and 6 others are hanged at dawn.
July 3 - Governor Bennett, after 3 of his own slaves have been hung, asks South Carolina State Attorney General Robert Y. Hayne for his opinion on the legality of the trials. Hayne replies that: “Magna Charta and Habeas corpus do not apply [to slaves] and indeed all the provisions of [the] Constitution in favor of liberty are intended for [white] free men only.”
July 12 - August 9 - 28 additional hangings are carried out. Some go badly and several of the condemned are left hanging, gasping for breath. In the end they have to be shot. Including one prisoner who died in prison, this makes a total of 35 executions. Another 37 slaves, accused of being a part of the plot, were transported outside the country, 23 were acquitted, and 3 were found not guilty but were still whipped because they were suspected of being involved. Four white men were also given short prison sentences for making statements sympathetic to the accused.
Fall - The leaders of the black AME Church are given 15 days to vacate the state and the Rev. Morris Brown and others flee. The AME congregation was said to have then “voluntarily dispersed” and the white authorities razed the African church building. Brown who moved to Philadelphia would later become an AME Bishop.
November 18 - Governor Bennett presents an official report to the legislature, but criticizes the court saying “there is no persuasive evidence that a conspiracy in fact existed or at most it was a vague and unfortunate plan in the minds or tongues of a few colored townsmen.”
December 10 - William Johnson, Charleston native and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, writes to his friend, Thomas Jefferson that “I have lived to see what I never believed it possible I should see—courts held with closed doors, and men dying by the scores who had never seen the faces nor heard the voices of their accusers.”
December 16 - The State Legislature awards masters the sum of $122.86 for each of their executed slaves.
May 20, 1835 - Capt. Joseph Vesey, 88, dies leaving no record of his thoughts on Denmark’s alleged insurrection.