University of Virginia Library

19. CHAPTER XIX.
THE CONSPIRATORS.

We owe our readers now some words of explanation
respecting the new personage who has been introduced into
our history; therefore we must go back somewhat, and
allude to certain historical events of painful significance.

It has been a problem to many, how the system of slavery
in America should unite the two apparent inconsistencies
of a code of slave-laws more severe than that of any other
civilized nation, with an average practice at least as indulgent
as any other; for, bad as slavery is at the best, it may
yet be admitted that the practice, as a whole, has been
less cruel in this country than in many. An examination
into history will show us that the cruelty of the laws
resulted from the effects of indulgent practice. During
the first years of importation of slaves into South Carolina,
they enjoyed many privileges. Those who lived in intelligent
families, and had any desire to learn, were instructed in
reading and writing. Liberty was given them to meet in
assemblies of worship, in class-meetings, and otherwise,
without the presence of white witnesses; and many were
raised to situations of trust and consequence. The result
of this was the development of a good degree of intelligence
and manliness among the slaves. There arose among them
grave, thoughtful, energetic men, with their ears and eyes
open, and their minds constantly awake to compare and
reason.

When minds come into this state, in a government professing
to be founded on principles of universal equality, it

follows that almost every public speech, document, or
newspaper, becomes an incendiary publication.

Of this fact the southern slave states have ever exhibited
the most singular unconsciousness. Documents containing
sentiments most dangerous for slaves to hear have been
publicly read and applauded among them. The slave has
heard, amid shouts, on the Fourth of July, that his masters
held the truth to be self-evident, that all men were born
equal, and had an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness; and that all governments derive their
just power from the consent of the governed. Even the
mottoes of newspapers have embodied sentiments of the
most insurrectionary character.

Such inscriptions as “Resistance to tyrants is obedience
to God” stand, to this day, in large letters, at the head of
southern newspapers; while speeches of senators and public
men, in which the principles of universal democracy are
asserted, are constant matters of discussion. Under such
circumstances, it is difficult to induce the servant, who feels
that he is a man, to draw those lines which seem so obvious
to masters, by whom this fact has been forgotten. Accordingly
we find that when the discussions for the admission of
Missouri as a slave state produced a wave whose waters
undulated in every part of the Union, there were found
among the slaves men of unusual thought and vigor, who
were no inattentive witnesses and listeners. The discussions
were printed in the newspapers; and what was
printed in the newspapers was further discussed at the
post-office door, in the tavern, in the bar-room, at the dinner-party,
where black servants were listening behind the
chairs. A free colored man in the city of Charleston,
named Denmark Vesey, was the one who had the hardihood
to seek to use the electric fluid in the cloud thus accumulated.
He conceived the hopeless project of imitating
the example set by the American race, and achieving independence
for the blacks.

Our knowledge of this man is derived entirely from the

printed reports of the magistrates who gave an account of
the insurrection, of which he was the instigator, and who
will not, of course, be supposed to be unduly prejudiced
in his favor. They state that he was first brought to
the country by one Captain Vesey, a young lad, distinguished
for personal beauty and great intelligence, and that
he proved, for twenty years, a most faithful slave; but, on
drawing a prize of fifteen hundred dollars in the lottery, he
purchased his freedom of his master, and worked as a carpenter
in the city of Charleston. He was distinguished for
strength and activity, and, as the accounts state, maintained
such an irreproachable character, and enjoyed so much the
confidence of the whites, that when he was accused, the
charge was not only discredited, but he was not even
arrested for several days after, and not till the proof of his
guilt had become too strong to be doubted. His historians
go on, with considerable naïveté, to remark:

“It is difficult to conceive what motive he had to enter into
“such a plot, unless it was the one mentioned by one of the
“witnesses, who said that Vesey had several children who
“were slaves, and that he said, on one occasion, he wished he
“could see them free, as he himself artfully remarked in his
“defence on his trial.”

It appears that the project of rousing and animating the
blacks to this enterprise occupied the mind of Vesey for
more than four years, during which time he was continually
taking opportunities to animate and inspire the spirits of his
countrymen. The account states that the speeches in Congress
of those opposed to the admission of Missouri into the
Union, perhaps garbled and misrepresented, furnished him
with ample means for inflaming the minds of the colored
population.

“Even while walking in the street,” the account goes on
to say, “he was not idle; for, if his companion bowed to a
“white person, as slaves universally do, he would rebuke him,
“and observe, `that all men were born equal, and that he
“was surprised that any one would degrade himself by

“such conduct; that he would never cringe to the whites;
“nor ought any one to, who had the feelings of a man.'[1]
“When answered, `We are slaves,' he would say, sar
“castically and indignantly, `You deserve to remain
“slaves!' And, if he were further asked, `What can we
“do?' he would remark, `Go and buy a spelling-book, and
“read the fable of “Hercules and the Wagoner.'” He also
“sought every opportunity of entering into conversation
“with white persons, during which conversation he would
“artfully introduce some bold remark on slavery; and some
“times, when, from the character he was conversing with,
“he found he might be still bolder, he would go so far that,
“had not his declarations been clearly proved, they would
“scarcely have been credited.”

But his great instrument of influence was a book that has
always been prolific of insurrectionary movements, under
all systems of despotism.

“He rendered himself perfectly familiar with all those
“parts of Scripture which he thought he could pervert to
“his purpose, and would readily quote them to prove that
“slavery was contrary to the laws of God, and that slaves
“were bound to attempt their emancipation, however shock
“ing and bloody might be the consequences; that such
“efforts would not only be pleasing to the Almighty, but
“were absolutely enjoined.”

Vesey, in the course of time, associated with himself
five slave-men of marked character — Rolla, Ned, Peter,
Monday, and Gullah Jack. Of these, the account goes on
to say:

“In the selection of his leaders, Vesey showed great pen
“etration and sound judgment. Rolla was plausible, and
“possessed uncommon self-possession; bold and ardent, he
“was not to be deterred from his purpose by danger.
“Ned's appearance indicated that he was a man of firm
“nerves and desperate courage. Peter was intrepid and

“resolute, true to his engagements, and cautious in observ
“ing secrecy where it was necessary; he was not to be
“daunted nor impeded by difficulties, and, though confident
“of success, was careful in providing against any obstacles
“or casualties which might arise, and intent upon discov
“ering every means which might be in their power, if
“thought of beforehand. Gullah Jack was regarded as a
“sorcerer, and, as such, feared by the natives of Africa,
“who believe in witchcraft. He was not only considered
“invulnerable, but that he could make others so by his
“charms, and that he could, and certainly would, provide
“all his followers with arms. He was artful, cruel, bloody;
“his disposition, in short, was diabolical. His influence
“among the Africans was inconceivable. Monday was firm,
“resolute, discreet, and intelligent.”

“It is a melancholy truth that the general good conduct
“of all the leaders, except Gullah Jack, was such as ren
“dered them objects least liable to suspicion. Their con
“duct had secured them, not only the unlimited confidence
“of their owners, but they had been indulged in every com
“fort, and allowed every privilege compatible with their
“situation in the community; and, though Gullah Jack was
“not remarkable for the correctness of his deportment, he
“by no means sustained a bad character. But,” adds the
report, “not only were the leaders of good character, and
“very much indulged by their owners, but this was very
“generally the case with all who were convicted, many of
“them possessing the highest confidence of their owners,
“and not one a bad character.”

“The conduct and behavior of Vesey and his five leaders
“during their trial and imprisonment may be interesting
“to many. When Vesey was tried, he folded his arms, and
“seemed to pay great attention to the testimony given
“against him, but with his eyes fixed on the floor. In this
“situation he remained immovable until the witnesses had
“been examined by the court, and cross-examined by his
“counsel, when he requested to be allowed to examine the

“witnesses himself, which he did. The evidence being
“closed, he addressed the court at considerable length.
“When he received his sentence, tears trickled down his
“cheeks.

“Rolla, when arraigned, affected not to understand the
“charge against him; and when, at his request, it was ex
“plained to him, assumed, with wonderful adroitness, as
“tonishment and surprise. He was remarkable throughout
“his trial for composure and great presence of mind.
“When he was informed that he was convicted, and was
“advised to prepare for death, he appeared perfectly con
“founded, but exhibited no signs of fear.

“In Ned's behavior there was nothing remarkable. His
“countenance was stern and immovable, even while he was
“receiving sentence of death. From his looks it was im
“possible to discover or conjecture what were his feelings.
“Not so with Peter Poyes. In his countenance were
“strongly marked disappointed ambition, revenge, indigna
“tion, and an anxiety to know how far the discoveries had
“extended. He did not appear to fear personal conse
“quences, for his whole behavior indicated the reverse, but
“exhibited an evident anxiety for the success of their plan,
“in which his whole soul was embarked. His countenance
“and behavior were the same when he received his sen
“tence, and his only words were, on retiring, `I suppose
“you 'll let me see my wife and family before I die,' and
“that in no supplicating tone. When he was asked, a day or
“two after, `If it was possible that he could see his master
“and family murdered, who had treated him so kindly?'
“he replied to the question only by a smile. In their prison,
“the convicts resolutely refused to make any confessions or
“communications which might implicate others; and Peter
“Poyes sternly enjoined it upon them to maintain this silence
“— `Do not open your lips; die silent, as you will see me do!'
“and in this resolute silence they met their fate. Twenty
“two of the conspirators were executed upon one gal
“lows.”

The account says, “That Peter Poyes was one of the most
“active of the recruiting agents. All the principal con
“spirators kept a list of those who had consented to join
“them, and Peter was said, by one of the witnesses, to
“have had six hundred names on his list; but, so resolutely
“to the last did he observe his pledge of secrecy to his
“associates, that, of the whole number arrested and tried,
“not one of them belonged to his company. In fact, in an
“insurrection in which thousands of persons were supposed
“to have been implicated, only thirty-six were convicted.”

Among the children of Denmark Vesey was a boy by a
Mandingo slave-woman, who was his father's particular
favorite. The Mandingos are one of the finest of African
tribes, distinguished for intelligence, beauty of form, and an
indomitable pride and energy of nature. As slaves, they
are considered particularly valuable by those who have tact
enough to govern them, because of their great capability
and their proud faithfulness; but they resent a government
of brute force, and under such are always fractious and
dangerous.

This boy received from his mother the name of Dred; a
name not unusual among the slaves, and generally given to
those of great physical force.

The development of this child's mind was so uncommon
as to excite astonishment among the negroes. He early
acquired the power of reading, by an apparent instinctive
faculty, and would often astonish those around him with
things which he had discovered in books. Like other children
of a deep and fervent nature, he developed great religious
ardor, and often surprised the older negroes by his
questions and replies on this subject. A son so endowed
could not but be an object of great pride and interest to a
father like Denmark Vesey. The impression seemed to prevail
universally among the negroes that this child was born
for extraordinary things; and perhaps it was the yearning
to acquire liberty for the development of such a mind which
first led Denmark Vesey to reflect on the nature of slavery,

and the terrible weights which it lays on the human intellect,
and to conceive the project of liberating a race.

The Bible, of which Vesey was an incessant reader,
stimulated this desire. He likened his own position of comparative
education, competence, and general esteem among
the whites, to that of Moses among the Egyptians; and
nourished the idea that, like Moses, he was sent as a deliverer.
During the process of the conspiracy, this son,
though but ten years of age, was his father's confidant; and
he often charged him, though he should fail in the attempt,
never to be discouraged. He impressed it upon his mind
that he should never submit tamely to the yoke of slavery;
and nourished the idea already impressed, that some more
than ordinary destiny was reserved for him. After the
discovery of the plot, and the execution of its leaders,
those more immediately connected with them were sold
from the state, even though not proved to have participated.
With the most guarded caution, Vesey had exempted
this son from suspicion. It had been an agreed
policy with them both, that in the presence of others they
should counterfeit alienation and dislike. Their confidential
meetings with each other had been stolen and secret. At
the time of his father's execution, Dred was a lad of fourteen.
He could not be admitted to his father's prison, but
he was a witness of the undaunted aspect with which he
and the other conspirators met their doom. The memory
dropped into the depths of his soul, as a stone drops into
the desolate depths of a dark mountain lake.

Sold to a distant plantation, he became noted for his desperate,
unsubduable disposition. He joined in none of the
social recreations and amusements of the slaves, labored
with proud and silent assiduity, but, on the slightest rebuke
or threat, flashed up with a savage fierceness, which, supported
by his immense bodily strength, made him an object
of dread among overseers. He was one of those of whom
they gladly rid themselves; and, like a fractious horse, was
sold from master to master. Finally, an overseer, hardier

than the rest, determined on the task of subduing him. In
the scuffle that ensued Dred struck him to the earth, a dead
man, made his escape to the swamps, and was never afterwards
heard of in civilized life.

The reader who consults the map will discover that the
whole eastern shore of the Southern States, with slight
interruptions, is belted by an immense chain of swamps,
regions of hopeless disorder, where the abundant growth
and vegetation of nature, sucking up its forces from the
humid soil, seems to rejoice in a savage exuberance, and
bid defiance to all human efforts either to penetrate or
subdue. These wild regions are the homes of the alligator,
the mocassin, and the rattle-snake. Evergreen trees, mingling
freely with the deciduous children of the forest, form
here dense jungles, verdant all the year round, and which
afford shelter to numberless birds, with whose warbling the
leafy desolation perpetually resounds. Climbing vines, and
parasitic plants, of untold splendor and boundless exuberance
of growth, twine and interlace, and hang from the
heights of the highest trees pennons of gold and purple,
— triumphant banners, which attest the solitary majesty of
nature. A species of parasitic moss wreaths its abundant
draperies from tree to tree, and hangs in pearly festoons,
through which shine the scarlet berry and green leaves of
the American holly.

What the mountains of Switzerland were to the persecuted
Vaudois, this swampy belt has been to the American
slave. The constant effort to recover from thence fugitives
has led to the adoption, in these states, of a separate
profession, unknown at this time in any other Christian land
— hunters, who train and keep dogs for the hunting of men,
women, and children. And yet, with all the convenience of
this profession, the reclaiming of the fugitives from these
fastnesses of nature has been a work of such expense and
difficulty, that the near proximity of the swamp has always
been a considerable check on the otherwise absolute power
of the overseer. Dred carried with him to the swamp but

one solitary companion — the Bible of his father. To him
it was not the messenger of peace and good-will, but the
herald of woe and wrath!

As the mind, looking on the great volume of nature, sees
there a reflection of its own internal passions, and seizes on
that in it which sympathizes with itself, — as the fierce and
savage soul delights in the roar of torrents, the thunder of
avalanches, and the whirl of ocean-storms, — so is it in the
great answering volume of revelation. There is something
there for every phase of man's nature; and hence its endless
vitality and stimulating force. Dred had heard read,
in the secret meetings of conspirators, the wrathful denunciations
of ancient prophets against oppression and
injustice. He had read of kingdoms convulsed by plagues;
of tempest, and pestilence, and locusts; of the sea cleft in
twain, that an army of slaves might pass through, and of
their pursuers whelmed in the returning waters. He had
heard of prophets and deliverers, armed with supernatural
powers, raised up for oppressed people; had pondered on
the nail of Jael, the goad of Shamgar, the pitcher and lamp
of Gideon; and thrilled with fierce joy as he read how Samson,
with his two strong arms, pulled down the pillars of the
festive temple, and whelmed his triumphant persecutors in
one grave with himself.

In the vast solitudes which he daily traversed, these
things entered deep into his soul. Cut off from all human
companionship, often going weeks without seeing a human
face, there was no recurrence of every-day and prosaic ideas
to check the current of the enthusiasm thus kindled. Even
in the soil of the cool Saxon heart the Bible has thrown out
its roots with an all-pervading energy, so that the whole
frame-work of society may be said to rest on soil held
together by its fibres. Even in cold and misty England,
armies have been made defiant and invincible by the incomparable
force and deliberate valor which it breathes into
men. But, when this oriental seed, an exotic among us, is

planted back in the fiery soil of a tropical heart, it bursts
forth with an incalculable ardor of growth.

A stranger cannot fail to remark the fact that, though the
slaves of the South are unable to read the Bible for themselves,
yet most completely have its language and sentiment
penetrated among them, giving a Hebraistic coloring to
their habitual mode of expression. How much greater,
then, must have been the force of the solitary perusal of
this volume on so impassioned a nature! — a nature, too,
kindled by memories of the self-sacrificing ardor with which
a father and his associates had met death at the call of freedom;
for, none of us may deny that, wild and hopeless as
this scheme was, it was still the same in kind with the more
successful one which purchased for our fathers a national
existence.

A mind of the most passionate energy and vehemence,
thus awakened, for years made the wild solitudes of the
swamp its home. That book, so full of startling symbols
and vague images, had for him no interpreter but the silent
courses of nature. His life passed in a kind of dream.
Sometimes, traversing for weeks these desolate regions, he
would compare himself to Elijah traversing for forty days
and nights the solitudes of Horeb; or to John the Baptist
in the wilderness, girding himself with camel's hair, and
eating locusts and wild honey. Sometimes he would fast
and pray for days; and then voices would seem to speak
to him, and strange hieroglyphics would be written upon
the leaves. In less elevated moods of mind, he would pursue,
with great judgment and vigor, those enterprises necessary
to preserve existence. The negroes lying out in the
swamps are not so wholly cut off from society as might at
first be imagined. The slaves of all the adjoining plantations,
whatever they may pretend, to secure the good-will of their
owners, are at heart secretly disposed, from motives both of
compassion and policy, to favor the fugitives. They very
readily perceive that, in the event of any difficulty occurring
to themselves, it might be quite necessary to have a friend

and protector in the swamp; and therefore they do not
hesitate to supply these fugitives, so far as they are able,
with anything which they may desire. The poor whites,
also, who keep small shops in the neighborhood of plantations,
are never particularly scrupulous, provided they can
turn a penny to their own advantage; and willingly supply
necessary wares in exchange for game, with which the
swamp abounds.

Dred, therefore, came in possession of an excellent rifle,
and never wanted for ammunition, which supplied him with
an abundance of food. Besides this, there are here and
there elevated spots in the swampy land, which, by judicious
culture, are capable of great productiveness. And many
such spots Dred had brought under cultivation, either with
his own hands, or from those of other fugitives, whom he
had received and protected. From the restlessness of
his nature, he had not confined himself to any particular
region, but had traversed the whole swampy belt of both
the Carolinas, as well as that of Southern Virginia; residing
a few months in one place, and a few months in another.
Wherever he stopped, he formed a sort of retreat, where he
received and harbored fugitives. On one occasion, he rescued
a trembling and bleeding mulatto woman from the
dogs of the hunters, who had pursued her into the swamp.
This woman he made his wife, and appeared to entertain a
very deep affection for her. He made a retreat for her, with
more than common ingenuity, in the swamp adjoining the
Gordon plantation; and, after that, he was more especially
known in that locality. He had fixed his eye upon Harry,
as a person whose ability, address, and strength of character,
might make him at some day a leader in a conspiracy
against the whites. Harry, in common with many of the
slaves on the Gordon plantation, knew perfectly well of the
presence of Dred in the neighborhood, and had often seen
and conversed with him. But neither he nor any of the
rest of them ever betrayed before any white person the
slightest knowledge of the fact.

This ability of profound secrecy is one of the invariable
attendants of a life of slavery. Harry was acute
enough to know that his position was by no means so secure
that he could afford to dispense with anything which
might prove an assistance in some future emergency. The
low white traders in the neighborhood also knew Dred well;
but, as long as they could drive an advantageous trade with
him, he was secure from their intervention. So secure had
he been, that he had been even known to mingle in the
motley throng of a camp-meeting unmolested. Thus much
with regard to one who is to appear often on the stage
before our history is done.