LoftonInsurrection

Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey. By John Lofton. (Yellow Springs, Ohio: The Antioch Press, c. 1964. Pp. 294.)

The history of American slavery is a grim narrative, a blemish on the normally trimuphalist narrative of American history. The conflict between a nation founded on personal liberty, yet utilizing the anachronistic practice of human bondage, was sure to result in insurrection.

One of these insurrectionist movements was a potential revolt in Charleston, South Carolina. The principle plotter was a man named Denmark Vesey, a freedman carpenter . This event is covered in John Lofton's Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey.

Denmark Vesey himself was a unique individual: a slave probably born and purchased on St. Thomas 10 by a slave trader named Captain Joseph Vesey. The boy traveled with his master, being exposed to a range of European languages and acquiring a unique education of the world. A testament to his intelligence and tenacity, he was able to purchase his own freedom, and make a living for himself in Charleston as a carpenter, living in a lifestyle that was comparatively better than that of his fellows.

In spite of this, it seemed that Denmark was greatly dissatisfied with slavery in principle and practice: it would be more accurate to say that he wildly hated it. Reports indicated that he made no secret of his contempt for slavery. Lofton offers a range of explanations for Vesey's potential rebellious feelings, from his cosmopolitan exposures to the many cruelties inflicted on slaves in the Carolinas and the West Indies, to his wife and children being slaves (adding the additional humiliation of having to request her master's permission to see his wife).

Vesey then set out to organize a slave revolt, enlisting several exceptional individuals in the slave community and recruiting widely in and around Charleston. Lofton is quick to point out the exceptional nature of this one act: Vesey, as a freedman, had little incentive to place himself at such risk in organizing such a coup. Even Vesey's accusers noted the apparent discrepancy. Despite this seeming values disconnect, Vesey and his associates plotted a brutal vengeance on their white tormentors. The plan involved several elements, from seizing various armories to killing whites and non-rebellious blacks in the streets, even a potential force from Haiti arriving to assist the rioting slaves.

The insurrection itself never made it past angry words: the reckless attempted recruitment of a house slave by a member of the revolt (in spite of recruiting being forbidden to any members of the movement save for Vesey's able lieutenant Peter Poyas)^ⁱ led straight from the wharf to members of elite Charleston society. The resulting witch hunt dismantled Vesey's coup. White opinion was inflamed, and punishment swift and harsh. Many of the conspirators were rounded up, with at least thirty four executions being carried out.^ⁱⁱ Retribution continued in the form of increasingly punitive measures against blacks, often placing South Carolina at a contrary position with the federal government of the United States. Lofton asserts this continuing downward spiral led to the enmity that resulted in South Carolina detaching itself from the Union, and opening hostilities against assets of the United States within its boundaries.

Lofton's book is well organized, with concise chapters that each focus on a particular aspect of the world of Denmark Vesey, from the nature of slave society in the Caribbean and the Carolinas, the elements which made it possible for a slave to contemplate and organize resistance, the buildup to the attempted revolt, and the aftermath. What is most interesting is Lofton's assessment of Carolina behavior towards blacks following the failed coup. White paranoia reached a fever pitch, in such a way as to place South Carolingian society in direct conflict with national interests: Lofton cites the Negro Seaman Act.^ⁱⁱⁱ which resulted in the imprisonment and persecution of blacks serving on British ships. This behavior was condemned by the federal government as a clear violation of trade agreement with the British, whereas the government of South Carolina asserted that, as a previously sovereign state having entered into union with a more powerful one, still possessed certain rights in dealing with its own internal issues. This issue of states rights was thus invoked to implement one of the harshest crackdowns on an ethnic population ever seen in the United States.

The implication by Lofton is that Denmark Vesey's attempted coup was two-fold. Its first affect was quite negative, resulting in a severe restriction of rights on a population that had previously enjoyed certain limited freedoms. This continued hard-line attitude, however, alienated South Carolina from the rest of the Union, leading (in Lofton's assertion) to the natural inclination that South Carolina would be the first of the Southern secessionists to initiate conflict with the United States. This aggression resulted in a civil war that would see South Carolingian society crushed, undone, and uprooted, completely overturning the old slave aristocracy that Denmark Vesey hated so much.

John McCarron

i Pgs. 146-147

ii Pg. 174

iii Pg. 201

John Lofton Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey (Yellow Springs: The Antioch Press, 1964)

In the summer of 1822 the threat of slave insurrection reared its head in Charleston, South Carolina. With the confidence of the insurrectionaries betrayed by a frightened slave, South Carolina officials discovered and stopped the uprising, executing the leaders, including fifty-five-year-old Denmark Vesey, the free black carpenter who had organized the short-lived revolt. The author notes that several other accounts of the planned insurrection have been published, but none have placed the narrative within its proper historical context. With Insurrection in South Carolina, John Lofton professes his objectives as the following: to portray the life of Captain Joseph Vesey, Denmark’s owner, as it intertwined with the young slave, to examine the social context in which Vesey’s rebellion took place, to tell the story of the of the insurrection and its aftermath, to suggest how all of these influenced African-American’s advance toward freedom and to indicate how South Carolina politicians were led to extremes by their commitment to slavery and their efforts to police it. (pp. viii-ix)

Born in 1767, probably on St. Thomas (possibly in Africa), Denmark Vesey began his life as a slave in the West Indies before Captain Joseph Vesey bought him and took him on a voyage to St. Domingue (Haiti), the major French sugar colony in the West Indies. In this environment Denmark Vesey worked until declared unfit because of “epileptic fits.” The next time Joseph Vesey visited the island, he was forced to take Denmark back because of this infirmity. Vesey and his slave traveled to Bermuda before settling in Charleston, South Carolina after the American Revolution. At Charleston, Denmark eventually bought his freedom with money he won in a local street lottery, after which he began practicing carpentry.

In 1791 revolution broke out on St. Domingue, where the slaves rose up and executed all of the whites who inhabited the island, setting up a government of their own and declaring independence. Slaves in the United States, particularly South Carolina where many of the fugitives from St. Domingue fled, were exposed to the idea of violent slave insurrection. Abolitionists in the United States also began, in the early part of the nineteenth century, to speak out against slavery and in 1819 the dispute over slavery came to the fore of national politics with the Missouri controversy. In this environment, Denmark Vesey, who lived a relatively idyllic life as a free man who amassed $8,000 of personal property by 1822, began plotting a widespread slave insurrection to take place on Sunday, July 16, 1822.

Vesey chose his lieutenants wisely, including two house servants of Governor Bennett. The revolutionaries stockpiled munitions and arms, including daggers and pikes, and enlisted mostly field servants and free blacks for their cause. They feared that house servants would betray the cause out of loyalty to their masters. Sure enough, in May, 1822 one of the insurrectionaries casually mentioned the plot to the house servant of a prominent Charelstonian, who, frightened, immediately informed his master. With this forewarning, Governor Bennett called out the militia, apprehended the various leaders of the movements a few at a time and tried them at a secret court outside Charleston cordoned by armed guards. On June 26, the court sentenced Denmark Vesey and five of his lieutenants to death by hanging on July 2. After these initial executions other prisoners revealed further details of the plot and dozens of slaves and free men were apprehended, tried and hung.

One of the immediate results of the Vesey scare was the “Negro Seaman Act” of 1822, passed by the South Carolina Legislature, that ordered all seamen of African origins imprisoned while their ships rested in Charleston, a law that repulsed especially the British whose ships sometimes docked in Charleston, only to have their seamen imprisoned for the color of their skin. The furor over the Vesey scare led directly to a hardening of South Carolinians against abolition and nationalism and towards a more pronounced sectionalism. Lofton maintains that Vesey emerges as a leader who helped to crystallize the fears of the slave holders and push them into an unyielding defensive stance and also inspired those who fought in the black man’s long, uphill struggle for freedom. His chief influence was to impel South Carolina toward disunion and their first overt confrontation with the U.S. government over slavery-the Nullification Crisis and then secession and Civil War.

In John Lofton’s Insurrection in South Carolina: The Turbulent World of Denmark Vesey, the author explores how Denmark Vesey’s revolt in Charleston, South Carolina led to extreme political reactions among Southerners during the 1820s. However, Lofton’s book is not confined to this single episode because it also examines the social, political, and economic history of South Carolina during the early nineteenth century.

The book’s climax focuses around Denmark Vesey’s organized plot against the slaveowners and white rule of Charleston. Lofton maintains that Vesey’s plans never materialized because Paul Williams divulged information about the insurrection to Peter Prioleau. Peter proceeded to inform the local authorities about the rebellion. The city officials acted quickly by arresting the individuals that they believed were associated with the revolt. A subsequent trial exposed a conspiracy of mass proportions. Ultimately, 35 leaders of the insurrection were executed and nearly fifty bondsmen were deported from South Carolina.

Following the various trials, city and state officials passed legislation designed to strengthen the discipline among bondsmen and reduce the contact between free and enslaved blacks. For example, one of the laws passed limited the number of slaves to be hired out. Additionally, the city officials passed legislation that confined the exercise of mechanical arts to whites. Although some these laws had already been in place prior to Vesey’s revolt, the potential insurrection caused many of the state’s legislators to finally enforce these measures.

Of the numerous laws passed by the officials in South Carolina, the most notable proved to be the Negro Seaman Act. The Negro Seaman Act allowed for the arrest of any black seaman entering the port of Charleston. Individuals from Charleston maintained that this measure would prohibit free blacks from corrupting the minds of their slaves. The Negro Seaman Act eventually drew the ire of John Quincy Adams, who served as the Secretary of State, because a number of black British seaman were imprisoned in Charleston as a result of the legislation. Adams opposed this measures because he believed that it would cause a strain in the relationship between the United States and Great Britain. Although Adams declared South Carolina’s Negro Seaman Act as unconstitutional, Robert Y. Hayne, governor of South Carolina, defied the federal government by continuing to enforce the legislation.

Lofton’s general narrative about Vesey’s plot to instigate a slave rebellion in Charleston does not offer readers any new information about this subject. However, the author’s treatment of the revolt’s repercussions provides readers with an insight into how the potential insurrection impelled South Carolina towards disunion. Lofton asserts that the first signs of disunion stemmed from the instance in which William Johnson, a justice of the United States Supreme Court, criticized the trails of the insurgents. Johnson noted the illegal mode of the trail by citing the refusal of the court to let the conspirators see or hear their accusers. While Lofton’s conclusions appear to be stretched in some cases, the work does illustrate that Vesey’s plot planted the seeds of disunion within the South.

One of the book’s weaknesses deals with the broad study of Lofton’s work. Although Lofton attempts to show how the social, economic, and political atmosphere of Charleston influenced Denmark’s character, there are instances in which the author focuses more on the history of South Carolina instead of discussing how these events affected Vesey. For example, there is a section of Lofton’s work that deals exclusively with South Carolina’s reaction to the War of 1812. Lofton describes how South Carolina ridiculed New England for proposing secession, but the author fails to inter-weave this event into the life of Denmark Vesey. While these portions of Lofton’s book enlighten readers about the history of South Carolina in the early nineteenth century, they ultimately distract the reader from the author’s main objective.

Another one of work’s weaknesses stems from the author’s careless errors. I counted as many as ten misspellings throughout the book. Here are some examples: p. 10, “deliniated” for delineated; p 124, “fugatives” for fugitives; and p. 147, “intaerrogated” for interrogated. In addition, Lofton fails to cite his sources correctly. For example, Lofton cites Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia as one of his primary sources, but Jefferson’s famous volume is actually entitled, Notes on the State of Virginia. Although Lofton’s book offers readers a solid narrative about Vesey’s insurrection in South Carolina, the errors detract from the work.

I would not encourage professors to use Lofton’s work within their classroom because of the numerous spelling errors scattered throughout the book. Additionally, I believe that the book does not add any new information to the Denmark Vesey story.