NOTES FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana

I wrote this play in the wake of 9-11 as our country was trying to decide how those accused of terrorism were to be tried. At the time I began this play, two alleged terrorists Jose Padillah and Yasaer Hamdi, were being held  just a few miles away in the Naval Weapons Station Brig in Goose Creek, SC. For over four years, they have been held in solitary confinement and much of it without being allowed to see a lawyer. Both were American Citizens who had been declared enemy combatants, and as such, denied all rights to due process under our constitution. Padillah was eventually tried in Miami in 2014 and  sentenced to 21 years in prison.

On June 28, 2004, in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, the United States Supreme Court rejected the U.S. government's attempts to detain Yaser Hamdi indefinitely without trial. It said he had the right as a U.S. citizen to due process under habeas corpus: to confront his accusers and contest the grounds of detention in an impartial forum. After agreeing to renounce his U.S. citizenship, Hamdi was released on October 9, 2004, without being charged and was deported to Saudi Arabia. He had to promise to comply with strict travel restrictions, which prohibited him from traveling to the United States, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Hamdi was required to notify Saudi Arabian officials if he ever plans to leave the kingdom. He had to promise not to sue the U.S. government for his captivity.

At the time, the controversy that arose around these cases and other cases reminded me of how the trials of Denmark Vesey and his alleged co-conspirators were considered irregular and controversial at the time—and to many are still controversial to this day. This sent me back to the history books and a year-long look at the historical record of the Vesey case.

Today, as we continue to confront the war on terror, we face many of the same issues as the authorities who tried Vesey faced. There were missing weapons of mass destruction, witnesses who were coerced and tortured into giving testimony, defendants tried in unusual and secret trials, as well as many troubling questions the world continues to face: Who is a terrorist? Who is a freedom fighter? Who is religious? Who is a religious fanatic?

Most intriguing to me as a playwright was the fact that even among historians, there were questions of Vesey’s innocence or guilt. If he did do it, why would a well-to-do free black man risk everything in such an audacious plot? If he didn’t do it, why did he remain silent and not protest his innocence? It seemed the making of an interesting play.

In addition to the many questions of the case I discovered the interesting relationship of Vesey to his one time master, Capt. Joseph Vesey. Not only had Vesey brought young Denmark to Charleston, but for the next 40 years they lived side by side. (more about their relationship) In 1822 Vesey, who had bought his freedom after winning a lottery in 1799, was accused of plotting an uprising that would have killed the white citizens of the city, poisoned the wells, raided the banks, stolen ships in the harbor, and led slaves to freedom in Haiti. Vesey was accused of having thousands of followers and hundreds of weapons hidden away, though none were ever found. A secret tribunal was held and in the end, Vesey and 34 other black men were hanged—the largest mass hanging in US history. Thirty-one others were deported. Vesey remained silent to the end. He never testified.

Even today, historians debate what really happened, though most scholars believe the plot was real and that the insurrection was thwarted when Vesey was turned in by his co-conspirators.  Still, because that testimony was probably coerced under threat of death, questions remain as to what really happened. 

It was clear I wouldn’t be able to unlock the mystery of what actually took place in 1822 and indeed, I worked hard to leave the question of what really happened an open question. I looked for another way to tell the story and began to wonder just what Captain Vesey and Denmark would have said if they had met on the eve of his trial and this imaginary meeting has become Denmark Vesey: Insurrection.

Julian Wiles,
Playwright