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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31290-h.zip b/31290-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..645cfdd --- /dev/null +++ b/31290-h.zip diff --git a/31290-h/31290-h.htm b/31290-h/31290-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7627419 --- /dev/null +++ b/31290-h/31290-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1402 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Right on the Scaffold, or The Martyrs of 1822, by Archibald H. Grimke. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + + hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:15%; margin-right:15%;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + ins.correction {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin solid gray;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Right on the Scaffold, or The Martyrs of +1822, by Archibald H. Grimke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Right on the Scaffold, or The Martyrs of 1822 + The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 7 + +Author: Archibald H. Grimke + +Release Date: February 16, 2010 [EBook #31290] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIGHT ON THE SCAFFOLD *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h3>The American Negro Academy.</h3> +<h3>OCCASIONAL PAPERS No 7.</h3> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h1>Right on the Scaffold, or<br />The Martyrs of 1822.</h1> +<p> </p> +<h3><span class="smcap">By</span> MR. ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKE.</h3> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h4>PRICE FIFTEEN CENTS.</h4> +<h4><span class="smcap">Washington, D. C.</span><br />Published by the Academy,<br />1901.</h4> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<h2>The Martyrs of 1822.</h2> + +<p>He was black but comely. Nature gave him a royal body, nobly planned and +proportioned, and noted for its great strength. There was that in his +countenance, which bespoke a mind within to match that body, a mind of +uncommon native intelligence, force of will, and capacity to dominate +others. His manners were at once abrupt and crafty, his temper was +imperious, his passions and impulses were those of a primitive ruler, +and his heart was the heart of a lion. He was often referred to as an +old man, but he was not an old man, when he died on a gallows at +Charleston, S. C., July 2, 1822. No, he was by no means an old man, +whether judged by length of years or strength of body, for he was on +that memorable July day, seventy-eight years ago, not more than +fifty-six years old, although the hair on his head and face was then +probably white. This circumstance and the pre-eminence accorded him by +his race neighbors, might account for the references to him, as to that +of an old man.</p> + +<p>All things considered, he was truly an extraordinary man. It is +impossible to say where he was born, or who were his parents. He was, +alas! as far as my knowledge of his personal history goes, a man without +a past. He might have been born of slave parentage in the West Indies, +or of royal ones in Africa, where, in that case, he was kidnapped and +sold subsequently into slavery in America. I had almost said that he was +a man without a name. He is certainly a man without ancestral name. For +the name to which he answered up to the age of fourteen, has been lost +forever. After that time he has been known as Denmark Vesey. Denmark is +a corruption of Telemaque, the praenomen bestowed upon him at that age +by a new master, and Vesey was the cognomen of that master who was +captain of an American vessel, engaged in the African slave trade +between the islands of St. Thomas and Sto. Domingo. It is on board of +Captain Vesey’s slave vessel that we catch the earliest glimpse of our +hero. Deeply interesting moment is that, which revealed thus to us the +Negro lad, deeply interesting and tragical for one and the same cause.</p> + +<p>This first appearance of him upon the stage of history occurred in the +year which ended virtually the war for American Independence, 1781, +during the passage between St. Thomas and Cap Francais, of Captain +Vesey’s slave bark with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> a cargo of 390 slaves. The lad, Telemaque, was +a part of that sad cargo, undistinguished at the outset of the voyage +from the rest of the human freight. Of the 389 others, we know +absolutely nothing. Not an incident, nor a token, not even a name has +floated to us across the intervening years, from all that multitudinous +misery, from such an unspeakable tragedy, except that the ship reached +its destination, and the slaves were sold. Like boats that pass at sea, +that slave vessel loomed for a lurid instant on the horizon, and was +gone forever—all but Denmark Vesey. How it happened that he did not +vanish with the rest of his ill-fated fellows, will be set down in this +paper, which has essayed to describe the slave plot which he planned, +with which his name is identified, and by which it ought to be, for all +time, hallowed in the memory of every man, woman and child of Negro +descent in America.</p> + +<p>On that voyage Captain Vesey was strongly attracted by the “beauty, +intelligence, and alertness” of one of the slaves on board. So were the +ship’s officers. This particular object of interest, on the part of the +slave-traders, was a black boy of fourteen summers. He was quickly made +a sort of ship’s pet and plaything, receiving new garments from his +admirers, and the high sounding name, as I have already mentioned, of +Telemaque, which in slave lingo was subsequently metamorphosed into +Denmark. The lad found himself in sudden favor, and lifted above his +companions in bondage by the brief and idle regard of that ship’s +company. Brief and idle, indeed, was the interest which he had aroused +in the breasts of those men, as the sequel showed. But while it lasted +it seemed doubtless very genuine to the boy, as such evidences of human +regard must have afforded him, in his forlorn state, the keenest +pleasure. Bitter, therefore, must have been his disappointment and grief +to find, at the end, that he had, in reality, no hold whatever upon the +regard of the slave traders. True he had been separated by captain and +officers from the other slaves during the voyage, but this ephemeral +distinction was speedily lost upon the arrival of the vessel at Cap +Francais, for he was then sold as a part of the human freight. Ah! he +had not been to those men so much as even a pet cat or dog, for with a +pet cat or dog they would not have so lightly parted, as they had done +with him. He had served their purpose, had killed for them the dull days +of a dull sail between ports, and he a boy with warm blood in his heart, +and hot yearnings for love in his soul.</p> + +<p>But the slave youth, so beautiful and attractive, was not to live his +life in the island of Sto. Domingo, or to terminate just then his +relations with the ship and her officers, however much Captain Vesey had +intended to do so. For Fate, by an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> unexpected circumstance, threw, for +better or for worse, master and slave together again, after they had +apparently parted forever in the slave mart of the Cape. This is how +Fate played the unexpected in the boy’s life. According to a local law +for the regulation of the slave trade in that place, the seller of a +slave of unsound health might be compelled by the buyer to take him +back, upon the production of a certificate to that effect from the royal +physician of the port. The purchaser of Telemaque availed himself of +this law to redeliver him to Captain Vesey on his return voyage to Sto. +Domingo. For the royal physician of the town had meanwhile certified +that the lad was subject to epileptic fits. The act of sale was +thereupon cancelled, and the old relations of master and slave between +Captain Vesey and Telemaque, were resumed. Thus, without design, +perhaps, however passionately he might have desired it, the boy found +himself again on board of his old master’s slave vessel, where he had +been petted and elevated in favor high above his fellow-slaves. I say +<i>perhaps</i> advisedly, for I confess that it is by no means clear to me +whether those epileptic fits were real or whether they were in truth +feigned, and therefore <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'th'">the</ins> initial <i>ruse de guerre</i> of that bright young +intelligence in its long battle with slavery.</p> + +<p>However, I do not mean to consume space with speculations on this head. +Suffice to say that Telemaque’s condition was improved by the event. Nor +had Captain Vesey any cause to quarrel with the fate which returned to +him the beautiful Negro youth. For it is recorded that for twenty years +thereafter he proved a faithful servant to the old slave trader, who +retiring in due course of time from his black business, took up his +abode in Charleston, S. C, where Denmark went to live with him. There in +his new home dame fortune again remembered her protege, turning her +formidable wheel a second time in his favor. It was then that Denmark, +grown to manhood, drew the grand prize of freedom. He was about +thirty-four years old when this immense boon came to him.</p> + +<p>It is not known for how many eager and anxious months or even years, +Denmark Vesey had patronized East Bay Street Lottery of Charleston prior +to 1800, when he was rewarded with a prize of $1,500. With $600 of this +money he bought himself of Captain Vesey. He was at last his own master, +in possession of a small capital, and of a good trade, carpentry, which +he practiced with great industry. He was successful, massed in time +considerable wealth, became a solid man of the community in spite of his +color, winning the confidence of the whites, and respect from the blacks +amounting almost to reverence. He married—was much married it was said, +which I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> see no reason to doubt, in view of the polygamous example set +him by many of the respectabilities of the master-race in that +remarkably pious old slave town. A plurality of children rose up, in +consequence, to him from the plurality of his family ties; rose up to +him, but they were not his, for following the condition of the mothers, +they were, under the Slave-Code, the chattels of other men.</p> + +<p>This cruel wrong eat deep into Vesey’s mind. Of course it was most +outrageous for him, a black man, to concern himself so much about the +human chattels of white men, albeit those human chattels were his own +children. What had he, a social pariah in Christian America, to do with +such high caste things as a heart and natural affections? But somehow he +did have a heart, and it was in the right place, and natural affections +for his own flesh and blood, like men with a white skin. ’Twas monstrous +in him to be sure, but he could not help it. The slave iron had entered +his soul, and the wound which it made rankled in secret there.</p> + +<p>Not alone the sad condition of his own children embittered his lot, but +the sad condition of other black men’s children as well. He yearned to +help all to better social conditions—to that freedom which is the gift +of God to mankind. He yearned to possess this God-given boon, in its +fullness and entirety, for himself before he passed thence to the grave. +For he possessed it not. He had indeed bought himself, but he soon +learned that the right to himself which he had purchased from his master +was not the freedom of a man, but the freedom accorded by the +Slave-Code, to a black man, a freedom so restrictive in quantity and +mean in quality that no white man, however low, could be made to live +contentedly under it for a day.</p> + +<p>In judging this black man, oh! ye critics and philosophers, judge him +not hastily and harshly before you have at least tried to put yourselves +in his place. You may not even then succeed in doing him justice, for +while he had his faults, and was sorely tempted, he was, nevertheless, +in every inch of him, from the soles of his feet to the crown of his +head, a man.</p> + +<p>At the period which we have now reached in his history, he was in +possession of a fairly good education—was able to read and write, and +to speak with fluency the French and English languages. He had traveled +extensively over the world in his master’s slave vessel, and had thus +obtained a stock of valuable experiences, and a wide range of knowledge +of men and things of which few inhabitants, whether black or white, in +the slave community of Charleston, during the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> quarter of the +nineteenth century could truthfully have boasted. Yet in spite of these +undeniable facts, in spite of his unquestioned ability and economic +efficiency as an industrial factor in that city, he was in legal and +actual ownership of precious little of that right to “life, liberty, and +the pursuit of happiness” which the most ignorant and worthless white +man enjoyed as a birthright. Wherever he moved or wished to move he was +met and surrounded by the most galling and degrading social and civil +conditions and proscriptions. True he held a bill of sale of his person, +had ceased to be the chattel property of an individual, but he still +wore chains, which kept him, and which were intended to keep him and +such as him, slaves of the community forever, deprived of every civil +right which white men, their neighbors, were bound to respect. For +instance, were he wronged in his person or property by any member of the +dominant race, be the offender man, woman, or child, Vesey could have +had no redress in the courts, in case, the proof of his complaint or the +enforcement of his claim depended exclusively upon the testimony of +himself and of that of black witnesses, however respectable.</p> + +<p>Such a man, we may be sure, was conscious of the possession, +notwithstanding his black skin and blacker social and civil condition, +of longings, aspirations, which the Slave-Code made it a crime for him +to satisfy. He must have felt the stir of forces and faculties within +him, which, under the heaviest pains and penalties, he was forbidden to +exercise. Thus robbed of freedom, ravished of manhood, what was he to +do? Ay, what ought he to have done under the circumstances? Ought he to +have done what multitudes had done before him, meek and submissive folk, +generations and generations of them, borne tamely like them his chains, +without an effort to break them, and break instead his lion’s spirit? +Ought he to have contented himself with such a woeful existence, and to +have been willing at its end to mingle his ashes with the miserable dust +of all those countless masses of forgotten and unresisting slaves? +“Never!” replied what was bravest and worthiest of respect in the breast +of this truly great-hearted man. The burning wrong which he felt against +slavery had sunk in his mind below the reach of the grappling tongs of +reason. It lay like a charge of giant powder, with its slow match +attachment in the unplumbed depths of a soul which knew not fear; of a +soul which was as hot with smouldering hate and rage as is a live +volcano with its unvomited flame and lava. As well, under the +circumstances, have tried to subdue the profound fury of the one with +argument, as to quench the hidden fires of the other with water.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>He knew, none better, that his oppressors were strong and that he was +weak; that he had but one slender chance in a hundred of redressing by +force the wrongs of himself and race. He knew too, that failure in such +a desperate enterprise could have for himself but a single issue, viz.: +certain death. But he believed that success on the other hand meant for +him and his the gain of that which alone was able to make their lives +worth the living, to wit.: a free man’s portion, his opportunity for the +full development and free play of all of his powers amid that society in +which was cast his lot. And for that portion, so precious, he was ready +to take the one chance with all of its tremendous risks, to stake that +miserable modicum of freedom which he possessed, the wealth laboriously +accumulated by him, and life itself.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to fix exactly the time when the bold idea of +resistance entered his brains, or to say when he began to plan for its +realization, and after that to prepare the blacks for its reception. +Before embarking on his perilous enterprise he must have carefully +reckoned on time, long and indefinite, as an essential factor in its +successful achievement. For, certain it is, he took it, years in fact, +made haste slowly and with supreme discretion and self-control. He +appeared to have thoroughly acquainted himself with the immense +difficulties which beset an uprising of the blacks. Not once, I think, +did he underestimate the strength of his foes. A past grand master in +the art of intrigue among the servile population, he was equally adept +in knowledge of the weak spots for attack in the defences of the slave +system, knew perfectly where the masters could best be taken at a +disadvantage. All the facts of his history combine to give him a +character for profound acting. In the underground agitation, which +during a period of three or four years, he conducted in the city of +Charleston and over a hundred miles of the adjacent country, he seemed +to have been gifted with a sort of Protean ability. His capacity for +practicing secrecy and dissimulation where they were deemed necessary to +his end, must have been prodigious, when it is considered that during +the years covered by his underground agitation, it is not recorded that +he made a single false note, or took a single false step to attract +attention to himself and movement, or to arouse over all that territory +included in that agitation and among all those white people involved in +its terrific consequences, the slightest suspicion of danger.</p> + +<p>In his underground agitation, Vesey, with an instinct akin to genius, +seemed to have excluded from his preliminary action everything like +conscious combination or organization among his disciples, and to have +confined himself strictly to the immediate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> business in hand at that +stage of his plot, which was the sowing of seeds of discontent, the +fomenting of hatred among the blacks, bond and free alike, toward the +whites. And steadily with that patience which Lowell calls the “passion +of great hearts,” he pushed deeper and deeper into the slave lump the +explosive principles of inalienable human rights. He did not flinch from +kindling in the bosoms of the slaves a hostility toward the masters as +burning as that which he felt toward them in his own breast. He had, +indeed, reached such a pitch of race enmity that, as he was often heard +to declare, “he would not like to have a white man in his presence.”</p> + +<p>And so, devoured by a supreme passion, mastered by a single predominant +idea, Vesey looked for occasions, and when they were wanting he created +them, to preach his new and terrible gospel of liberty and hate. Thus +only could he hope to render their condition intolerable to the slaves, +the production of which was the indispensable first step in the +consummation of his design. Otherwise what possibility of final success +could a contented slave population have offered him? He needed a fulcrum +on which to plant his lever. He had nowhere in such an enterprise to +place it, but in the discontent and hatred of the slaves toward their +masters. Therefore on the fulcrum of race hatred he rested his lever of +freedom for his people.</p> + +<p>As the discontented bondsmen heard afresh with Vesey’s ears the hateful +clank of their chains, they would, in time, learn to think of Vesey and +to turn, perhaps, to him for leadership and deliverance. Brooding over +their lot as Vesey had revealed it to them, they might move of +themselves to improve or end it altogether, by adopting some such bold +plan as Vesey’s. Meantime he would continue to wait and prepare for that +moment, while they would be training in habits of deceit, of deep +dissimulation, that formidable weapon of the weak in conflict with the +strong, that <i>ars artium</i> of slaves in their attempts to break their +chains—a habit of smiling and fawning on unjust and cruel power, while +bleeds in secret their fiery wound, rages and plots there also their +passionate hate, and glows there too their no less passionate hope for +freedom.</p> + +<p>Everywhere through the dark subterranean world of the slave, in +Charleston and the neighboring country, went with his great passion of +hate and his great purpose of freedom, this untiring breeder of +sedition. And where he moved beneath the thin crust of that upper world +of the master-race, there broke in his wake whirling and shooting +currents of new and wild sensations in the abysses of that under world +of the slave-race. Down deep below the ken of the masters was toiling +this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> volcanic man, forming the lava-floods, the flaming furies, and the +awful horrors of a slave uprising.</p> + +<p>Nowhere idle was that underground plotter against the whites. Even on +the street where he happened to meet two or three blacks, he would bring +the conversation to his one consuming subject, and preach to them his +one unending sermon of freedom and hate. It was then as if his stern +voice, with its deep organ chords of passion, was saying to those men: +“Forget not, oh my brothers your misery. Remember how ye are wronged +every day and hour, ye and your mothers and sisters, your wives and +children. Remember the generations gone weeping and clanking heavy +chains from the cradle to the grave. Remember the oppression of the +living, who with heart-break and death-wounds, are treading their +mournful way in bitter anguish and despair across burning desert sands, +with parched soul and shriveled minds, with piteous thirsts, and +terrible tortures of body and spirit. Weep for them, weep for yourselves +too, if ye will, but learn to hate, ay, to hate with such hatred as +blazes within me, the wicked slave-system and the wickeder white men who +oppress and wrong us thus.”</p> + +<p>Ever on the alert was he for a text or a pretext to advance his +underground movement. Did he and fellow blacks for example, encounter a +white person on the street, and did Vesey’s companions make the +customary bow, which blacks were wont to make to whites, a form of +salutation born of generations of slave-blood, meanly humble and +cringingly self-effacing, rebuking such an exhibition of sheer and +shameless servility and lack of proper self-respect, he would thereupon +declare to them the self-evident truth that all men were born free and +equal, that the master, with his white skin, was in the sight of God no +whit better than his black slaves, and that for himself he would not +cringe like that to any man.</p> + +<p>Should the sorry wretches, bewildered by Vesey’s boldness and dazed by +his terrifying doctrines, reply defensively “we are slaves,” the harsh +retort “you deserve to remain so,” was, without doubt, intended to sting +if possible, their abject natures into sensibility on the subject of +their wrongs, to galvanize their rotting souls back to manhood, and to +make their base and sieve-like minds capable of receiving and retaining, +at least, a single fermenting idea. And when Vesey was thereupon asked +“What can we do?” he knew by that token that the sharp point of his +spear had pierced the slavish apathy of ages of oppression, and that +thenceforth light would find its red and revolutionary way to the +imprisoned minds within. To the query “What can we do?” his invariable +response was, “Go and buy a spelling book and read the fable of Hercules +and the Wagoner.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> They were to look for Hercules in their own stout +arms and backs, and not in the clouds, to brace their iron shoulders +against the wheels of adversity and oppression, and to learn that +self-help was ever the best prayer.</p> + +<p>At other times, in order to familiarize the blacks, I suppose, with the +notion of equality, and to heighten probably at the same time his +influence over them, he would select a moment when some of them were +within earshot, to enter into conversation with certain white men, whose +characters he had studied for his purpose, and during the shuttle-cock +and battledore of words which was sure to follow, would deftly let fly +some bold remark on the subject of slavery. “He would go so far,” on +such occasions it was said, “that had not his declarations in such +situations been clearly proved, they would scarcely have been credited.” +Such action was daring almost to rashness, but in it is also apparent +the deep method of a clever and calculating mind.</p> + +<p>The sundry religious classes or congregations with <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'Nego'">Negro</ins> leaders or +local preachers, into which were formed the Negro members of the various +churches of Charleston, furnished Vesey with the first rudiments of an +organization, and at the same time with a singularly safe medium for +conducting his underground agitation. It was customary, at that time, +for these Negro congregations to meet for purposes of worship entirely +free from the presence of the whites. Such meetings were afterward +forbidden to be held except in the presence of at least one +representative of the dominant race. But during the three or four years +prior to the year 1822, they certainly offered Denmark Vesey regular, +easy and safe opportunities for preaching his gospel of liberty and +hate. And we are left in no doubt whatever in regard to the uses to +which he put those gatherings of blacks.</p> + +<p>Like many of his race he possessed the gift of gab, as the silver in the +tongue and the gold in the full or thick-lipped mouth are oftentimes +contemptuously characterized. And like many of his race he was a devoted +student of the Bible to whose interpretation he brought like many other +Bible students, not confined to the Negro race, a good deal of +imagination, and not a little of superstition, which with some natures +is perhaps but another name for the desires of the heart. Thus equipped +it is no wonder that Vesey, as he pored over the Old Testament +Scriptures, found many points of similitude in the history of the Jews +and that of the slaves in the United States. They were both peculiar +peoples. They were both Jehovah’s peculiar peoples, one in the past, the +other in the present. And it seemed to him that as Jehovah bent his ear, +and bared his arm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> once in behalf of the one, so would he do the same +for the other. It was all vividly real to his thought, I believe, for to +his mind thus had said the Lord.</p> + +<p>He ransacked the Bible for apposite and terrible texts, whose commands +in the olden times, to the olden people, were no less imperative upon +the new times and the new people. This new people was also commanded to +arise and destroy their enemies and the city in which they dwelt, “both +man and woman, young and old, * * * with the edge of the sword.” +Believing superstitiously, as he did, in the stern and Nemesis-like God +of the Old Testament, he looked confidently for a day of vengeance and +retribution for the blacks. He felt, I doubt not, something peculiarly +applicable to his enterprise, and intensely personal to himself in the +stern and exultant prophecy of Zachariah, fierce and sanguinary words +which were constantly in his mouth: “Then shall the Lord go forth, and +fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.” +According to Vesey’s lurid exegeisis “those nations” in the text meant, +beyond a peradventure, the cruel masters, and Jehovah was to go forth to +fight against them for the poor slaves, and on which ever side fought +that day the Almighty God, on that side would assuredly rest victory and +deliverance.</p> + +<p>It will not be denied that Vesey’s plan contemplated the total +annihilation of the white population of Charleston. Nursing for many +dark years the bitter wrongs of himself and race had filled him, without +doubt, with a mad spirit of revenge, and had so given him a decided +predilection for shedding the blood of his oppressors. But if he +intended to kill them to satisfy a desire for vengeance, he intended to +do so also on broader ground. The conspirators, he argued, had no choice +in the matter, but were compelled to adopt a policy of extermination by +the necessity of their position. The liberty of the blacks was in the +balance of fate against the lives of the whites. He could strike that +balance in favor of the blacks only by the total destruction of the +whites. Therefore, the whites, men, women and children, were doomed to +death. “What is the use of killing the louse and leaving the nit?” he +asked coarsely and grimly on an occasion when the matter was under +consideration. And again he was reported to have, with unrelenting +temper, represented to his friends in secret council, that, “It was for +our safety not to spare one white skin alive.” And so it was +unmistakably in his purpose to leave not a single egg lying about +Charleston, when he was done with it, out of which might possibly be +hatched another future slave-holder and oppressor of his people. +“Thorough” was in truth, the merciless motto of that terrible man.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>All roads, on the red map of his plot, led to Rome. Every available +instrument which fell in his way, he utilized to deepen and extend his +underground agitation among the blacks. Wherefore it was that he seized +upon the sectional struggle which was going on in Congress over the +admission of Missouri, and pressed it to do service for his cause. The +passionate wish, unconsciously perhaps, colored if it did not create the +belief on his part, that the real cause of that great debate in +Washington, and excitement in the country at large, was a movement for +general emancipation of the slaves. It was said that he went so far in +this direction as to put it into the heads of the blacks that Congress +had actually enacted an emancipation law, and that therefore their +continued enslavement was illegal. Such preaching must have certainly +added fresh fuel to the deep sense of injury, then burning in the +breasts of many of the slaves, and must have operated also to prepare +them for the next step which Vesey’s plan of campaign contemplated, +viz.: a resort to force to wrest from the whites the freedom which was +theirs, not only by the will of Heaven, but as well by the supreme law +of the land.</p> + +<p>A period of underground agitation, such as Vesey had carried on for +about three or four years, will, unless arrested, pass naturally into +one of organized action. Vesey’s movement reached, in the winter of +1821-22, such a stage. As far as it is known, he had up to this time +done the work of agitator singlehanded and alone. Singlehanded and alone +he had gone to and fro through that under world of the slave, preaching +his gospel of liberty and hate. But about Christmas of 1821, the long +lane of his labors made a sharp turn. This circumstance tended +necessarily to throw other actors upon the scene, as shall presently +appear.</p> + +<p>The first step taken at the turn of his long and laborious lane was +calculated to put to the utmost test his ability as a leader, as an arch +plotter. For it was nothing less momentous than the choice by him of fit +associates. On the wisdom with which such a choice was made, would +depend his own life and the success of his undertaking. Among thousands +of disciples he had to find the right men to whom to entrust his secret +purpose and its execution in co-operation with himself. The step was +indeed crucial and in taking it he needed not alone the mental qualities +which he had exhibited in his role of underground agitator, viz.: +serpent-like cunning and intelligence under the direction of the most +alert and flexible discretion, but as well a practical and profound +knowledge of the human nature with which he had to deal, a keen and +infallible insight into individual character.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>It is not too much to claim for Denmark Vesey, that his genius rose to +the emergency, and proved itself equal to a surpassingly difficult +situation, in the singular fitness of the five principal men on whom +fell his election to associate leadership, with himself, and to the work +of organizing the blacks for resistance. These five men, who became his +ablest and most efficient lieutenants, were Peter Poyas, Rolla and Ned +Bennett, Monday Gell and Gullah Jack. They were all slaves and, I +believe, full-blooded Negroes. They constituted a remarkable quintet of +slave leaders, combined the very qualities of head and heart which Vesey +most needed at the stage then reached by his unfolding plot. For fear +lest some of their critics might sneer at the sketch of them which I am +tempted to give, as lacking in probability and truth, I will insert +instead the careful estimate placed upon them severally by their slave +judges. And here it is: “In the selection of his leaders, Vesey showed +great penetration 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 observing secrecy where it was +necessary; he was not to be daunted nor impeded by difficulties, and +though confident of success, was careful against any obstacles or +casualties which might arise, and intent upon discovering every means +which might be in their favor 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.”</p> + +<p>From this picture, painted by bitter enemies, who were also their +executioners, could any person, ignorant of the circumstances and the +history of those men, possibly guess, with the exception of Gullah Jack, +to what race the originals belonged, or think you, that such a person +would so much as dream that they were in fact, as they were in the eye +of the law under which they lived, nothing more than so many human +chattels, subject like cattle to the caprice and the cruelty of their +owners?</p> + +<p>Such nevertheless was the remarkable group of blacks on whom had fallen +Vesey’s choice. And did they not present an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> assemblage of high and +striking qualities? Here were coolness in action, calculation, +foresight, plausibility in address, fidelity to engagements, +secretiveness, intrepid courage, nerves of iron in the presence of +danger, inflexible purpose, unbending will, and last though not least in +its relations to the whole, superstition incarnate in the character of +the Negro conjurer. Masterly was indeed the combination, and he had no +ordinary gift for leadership, who was able to hit it off at one +surprising stroke.</p> + +<p>As the work of organized preparation for the uprising advanced, Vesey +added presently to his staff two principal and several minor recruiting +agents, who operated in Charleston and in the country to the North of +the city as far as the Santee, the Combahee, and Georgetown. Their +exploitation in the interest of the plot extended to the South into the +two large islands of James and John’s, as well as to plantations across +the Ashley River. Vesey himself, it was said, traveled southwardly from +Charleston between seventy and eighty miles, and it was presumed by the +writers that he did so on business connected with the conspiracy, which +I consider altogether probable. He had certainly thrown himself into the +movement with might and main. We know, that its direction absorbed +finally his whole time and energy. “He ceased working himself at his +trade,” so ran the testimony of a witness at his trial, “and employed +himself exclusively in enlisting men.”</p> + +<p>The number of blacks engaged in the enterprise was undoubtedly large. It +is a sufficiently conservative estimate to place this number, I think, +at two or three thousand, at least. One recruiting officer alone, Frank +Ferguson, enlisted in the undertaking the slaves of four plantations +within forty miles of the city; and in the city itself, it was said that +the personal roll of Peter Poyas embraced a membership of six hundred +names. More than one witness placed the conjectural strength of Vesey’s +forces as high as 9,000, but I am inclined to write this down as a gross +overestimate of the people actually enrolled as members of the +conspiracy.</p> + +<p>Here is an example of the nice calculation and discretion of the man who +was the soul of the conspiracy. It is contained in the testimony of an +intensely hostile witness, a slave planter, whose slaves were suspected +of complicity in the intended uprising.</p> + +<p>“The orderly conduct of the Negroes in any district of country within +forty miles of Charleston,” wrote this witness, “is no evidence that +they were ignorant of the intended attempt. A more orderly gang than my +own is not to be found in this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> State, and one of Denmark Vesey’s +directions was, that they should assume the most implicit obedience.”</p> + +<p>Take another instance of the extraordinary aptitude of the slave leaders +for the conduct of their dangerous enterprise. It illustrates Peter’s +remarkable foresight and his faculty for scenting danger, and making at +the same time provision for meeting it. In giving an order to one of his +assistants, said he, “Take care and don’t mention it (the plot) to those +waiting men who receive presents of old coats, &c., from their masters +or they’ll betray us.” And then as if to provide doubly against betrayal +at their hands, he added “I’ll speak to them.” His apprehension of +disaster to the cause from this class was great, but it was not greater +than the reality, as the sequel abundantly proved. Let me not, however, +anticipate.</p> + +<p>If there were immense difficulties in the way of recruiting, there were +even greater ones in the way of supplying the recruits with proper arms, +or with any arms at all for that matter. But vast as were the +difficulties, the leaders fronted them with buoyant and unquailing +spirit, and rose, where other men of less faith and courage would have +given up in despair, to the level of seeming impossibilities, and to the +top of a truly appalling situation. Where were they, indeed, to procure +arms? There was a blacksmith among them, who was set to manufacturing +pike-heads and bayonets, and to turning long knives into daggers and +dirks. Arms in the houses of the white folks they designed to borrow +after the manner of the Jews from the Egyptians. But for their main +supply they counted confidently upon the successful seizure, by means of +preconcerted movements, of the principal places of deposit of arms +within the limits of the city, of which there were several. The capture +of these magazines and storehouses was quite within the range of +probability, for every one of them was at the time in a comparatively +unprotected state. Two large gun and powder stores, situated about three +and a half miles beyond the Lines, and containing nearly eight hundred +muskets and bayonets, were, by arrangement with Negro employees +connected with them, at the mercy of the insurgents whenever they were +ready to move upon them. The large <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'buiding'">building</ins> in the city, where was +deposited the greater portion of the arms of the State, was strangely +neglected in the same regard. Its main entrance, opening on the street, +consisted of ordinary wooden doors, without the interposition between +them and the public of even a brick wall.</p> + +<p>In the general plan of attack, the capture of this building, which held +tactically the key to the defense of Charleston, in the event of a slave +uprising, was assigned to Peter Poyas, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> ablest of Vesey’s +lieutenants. Peter, probably disguised by means of false hair and +whiskers, was at a given signal at midnight of the appointed day, to +move suddenly with his band upon this important post. The difficulty of +the undertaking lay in the vigilance of the sentinels doing a duty +before this building, and its success depended upon Peter’s ability to +surprise and slay this man before he could sound the alarm. Peter was +confident of his ability to kill the sentinel and capture the building, +and I think that he had good ground for his confidence. In conversation +with an anxious follower, who feared lest the watchfulness of the guard +might defeat the attempt, Peter remarked that he “would advance a little +distance ahead, and if he could only get a <i>grip at his throat he was a +gone man</i>, for his sword was very sharp; he had sharpened it, and made +it so sharp it had cut his finger.” And as if to cast the last lingering +doubt out of his disciple in regard to his (Peter’s) ability to fix the +sentinel, he showed him the bloody cut on his finger.</p> + +<p>Other leaders, at the head of their respective bands, were at the same +time, and from six different quarters, to attack the city, surprising +and seizing all of its strategical points, and the buildings, where were +deposited its arms and ammunition. A body of insurgent horse was, +meanwhile, to keep the streets clear, cutting down without mercy all +white persons, and suspected blacks, whom they might encounter, in order +to prevent the whites from concentrating or spreading the alarm through +the doomed town. Such was Denmark Vesey’s masterly and merciless plan of +campaign in bare outline for the capture of Charleston, a plan, which, +with such a sagacious head as was Vesey, was entirely feasible, and +which would have, undoubtedly, succeeded but for the happening of the +unexpected at a critical stage of its execution. Against such an +occurrence as was this one, no man in Vesey’s situation, however supreme +might have been his ability as a leader, could have completely provided. +The element of treachery could not by any device have been wholly +eliminated from his chapter of accidents and chances. To do what he set +out to do, with the means at his disposition, Vesey had of necessity to +take the tremendous risk of betrayal at the hand of some black traitor. +It was, in reality, sad to relate his greatest risk, and became the one +insurmountable barrier in the way of his final success.</p> + +<p>Sunday at midnight of July 14, 1822, was fixed upon originally as the +time for beginning his attack upon the city. But about the last of May, +owing to indications that the plot had been discovered, he shortened the +period of its preparation, and appointed instead midnight of Sunday, +June 16th, of the same year. His reason for selecting the original date +illustrates his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> careful and astute attention to details in making his +plans. He had noted that the white population of Charleston was subject, +to a certain extent, to regular tidal movements; that at one season of +the year this movement was at high tide, and that at another it was at +low tide. It was no great difficulty, under the circumstances, for a man +like Denmark Vesey to forecast with reasonable accuracy these recurrent +movements, and natural enough that he should have planned his attack +with reference to them. And this was exactly what he did when he +appointed July 14th as the original date for beginning the insurrection. +At that time the city was less capable than at an earlier date to cope +with a slave uprising, owing to the departure in large numbers from it, +for summer resorts, of its wealthier classes.</p> + +<p>Again his selection of the first day of the week in both instances was +equally the result of careful calculation on his part, as on that day +large bodies of slaves from the adjacent plantations and islands were +wont to visit the town without molestation, whereas on no other day +could this have been done. Thus, without exciting alarm, did Vesey plan +to introduce his Trojan horse or country bands into the city, where they +were to be concealed until the hour for beginning the attack.</p> + +<p>But the attack, carefully planned as it was, did not take place. For the +thing which Peter Poyas feared, and had vainly endeavored to provide +against, came to pass. One of those very “waiting men,” for whom Peter +entertained such deep distrust, and against whom he had raised his voice +in sharp warning, betrayed to his master the plot, the secret of which +had been communicated to him by an overzealous convert, whose discretion +was shorter than his tongue. All this happened on the morning of the +30th of May, and by sunset of that day the secret was in possession of +the authorities of the city. Precautionary measures were quickly taken +by them to guard against surprise, and to discover the full extent of +the intended uprising.</p> + +<p>Luckily for the conspirators the information given by the traitor was +vague and general. Nor was the city able to elicit from the informant of +this man, who had been promptly arrested and subjected to examination, +any disclosures of a more specific or satisfactory character. He was, in +truth, in possession of but few particulars of the plot, and was +therefore unable to give any greater definiteness to the government’s +stock of knowledge relative to the subject. Suspicion, however, lighted +on Peter Poyas and Mingo Harth, one of Vesey’s minor leaders. They were, +thereupon apprehended, and their personal effects searched, but nothing +was found to inculpate either,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> except an enigmatical letter not +understood by the authorities at the time. This circumstance, coupled +with the coolness and consummate acting of the pair of suspected +leaders, perplexed and deceived the authorities to such a degree that +they ordered the discharge of the prisoners. But the fright and anxiety +of the city were not so readily got rid of. They held Charleston uneasy +and apprehensive of danger, and so kept it suspicious and watchful.</p> + +<p>Things remained in this state of watchfulness anxiety, on both sides, +for about a week. Vesey on his part remitted nothing of his preparations +for the coming 16th of June, but pushed them if possible with increased +vigor and secrecy. He held the while nocturnal meetings at his house on +Bull street, where modified arrangements for the execution of his plans +were broached and matured. How he dared at this juncture to incur such +extreme hazard of detection, it is difficult to understand. But he and +his confederates were men of the most indomitable purpose, and took in +the desperate circumstances, in which they were then placed, the most +desperate chances. They had to. They could not do otherwise.</p> + +<p>The city on its side, was listening during a part of this same week to a +second confession of that poor fellow whose tongue had outmeasured his +discretion. It was listening with reviving dread to the wild and +incoherent disclosures of this man, whom it had flung into the black +hole of the workhouse. There, crazed by misery and fear of death, he +raved about a plot among the blacks to massacre the whites and to put +the town to fire and pillage. This second installment of William Paul’s +excited disclosures, while it increased the sense of impending peril, +did not put the government in better position to avert it. For groping +in the dark still, it knew not yet where or whom to strike. But in this +period of horrible suspense and uncertainty its suspicion fell on +another one of Vesey’s principal leaders. This time it was on <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'New'">Ned</ins> +Bennett that the city’s distrustful eye fastened. Like that game which +children play where the object of search is hidden, and where the +seekers as they approach near and yet nearer to the place of +concealment, grow warm and then warmer, so was the city, in its terrible +search for the source of its danger, growing hot and hotter. That was, +indeed, a frightful moment for the conspirators when Ned Bennett became +suspected. The city, as the children say in their game, was beginning to +burn, for it seemed as if it must at the next move, thrust its iron hand +into that underground world where the plot was hatching, and clutching +the heart of the great enterprise, snatch it, conspiracy and +conspirators, into the light of day. But it was at such a tremendous +moment of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> danger, that the leaders, unawed by the imminency of +discovery, took a step to throw the city off of their scent, so daring, +dextrous and unexpected as to knock the breath out of us.</p> + +<p>Ned Bennett, whom the city was watching as a cat, before springing, +watches a mouse, went voluntarily before the Intendant or Mayor of the +city, and asked to be examined, if so be he was an object of suspicion +to the authorities. Ned was so surprisingly cool and indifferent, and +wore so naturally an air of conscious innocence, that the great man was +again deceived, and the city was thus thrown a second time out of the +course of its game. Ned’s arrest and examination were postponed, as the +authorities in their perplexity were afraid to take at the time any +decisive action, lest it might prove premature and abortive. And so +lying on its arms, the city waited and watched for fresh developments +and disclosures, while the insurgent leaders, in their underground world +watched warily too, and pushed forward with undiminished confidence +their final preparations, when they would, out of the dark, strike +suddenly their liberating and annihilating blow. This awful state of +suspense, of the most watchful suspicion and anxiety on one side, and of +wary and anxious preparations on the other, continued for about five or +six days, when it was ended by a second act of treachery emanating from +the distrusted class of “waiting men,” whose highest aspirations did not +seem to reach above their masters’ cast off garments.</p> + +<p>Unlike the first, the information furnished to the authorities by the +second traitor, was not lacking in definiteness. For this fellow knew +what he was talking about. He knew almost all of the leaders, and many +particulars connected with the plot. The city was thus placed in +possession of the secret. It knew now the names of the ringleaders. But +confident, apparently, of its ability to throttle the intended +insurrection, it allowed two days to pass and the 16th of June, without +making any arrests. Cat-like it crouched ready to spring, while it +followed the unconscious movements of the principal conspirators. For +Vesey and his principal officers were at that time, ignorant of the +second betrayal, and therefore of the fact that they were from the 14th +of June at the mercy of the police. On Saturday night, June 15th, an +incident occurred, however, which warned them that they were betrayed, +and that disaster was close at hand. This incident revealed as by a +flash of lightning the hopelessness of their position. On that day Vesey +had instructed one of his aids, Jesse Blackwood, to go into the country +in the evening for the purpose of preparing the plantation slaves to +enter the city on the day following, which was Sunday, June 16th, the +time fixed for beginning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> the insurrection. Jesse was unable to +discharge this mission, either on Saturday night or Sunday morning, +owning to the increased strength and vigilance of the city police and of +its patrol guard. He had succeeded on Sunday morning in getting by two +of their lines, but at the third line he was halted and turned back into +the city. When this ominous fact was reported to the Old Chief, Vesey +became very sorrowful. He and the other leaders must have instantly +perceived that they were caught, as in a trap, and that the end was +near. It was probably on this Sunday that they destroyed their papers, +lists of names and other incriminating evidence. The shadow of the +approaching catastrophe deepened and spread rapidly around and above +them as they watched and waited helplessly under the huge asp of +slavery, which enraged and now completely coiled, was about to strike. +The stroke fell first on Peter, Rolla, Ned, and Batteau Bennett. The +last, although but a boy of eighteen, was one of the most active of the +younger leaders of the plot. Vesey was not captured until the fourth day +afterward. So secret and profound had been his methods of operations in +the underground world, that the early reports of his connection with the +conspiracy, were generally discredited among the whites. Jesse Blackwood +was taken the next day, and four days later, on June 27th, Monday Gell +was arrested. Gullah Jack eluded the search of the police until July +5th, when he too was struck by the huge slave asp.</p> + +<p>In all, there were one hundred and thirty-one blacks arrested, +sixty-seven convicted, thirty-five executed, and thirty-seven banished +beyond the limits of the United States. Five of these last were of the +class of suspects, whom it was thought best to get rid of. Of the whole +number of convictions, not one belonged to the bands of either Vesey, or +Peter, or Rolla, or Ned, and but few to that of Gullah Jack’s. +Absolutely true did these five leaders prove to their vow of secrecy, +and so died without betraying a single associate. This alas! cannot be +said of Monday Gell, who brave and loyal as he was throughout the period +of his arrest and trial, yet after sentence of death had been passed +upon him, and under the influence of a terror-stricken companion, +succumbed to temptation, and for the sake of life, consented to betray +his followers. Denmark, Peter, Rolla, Ned, Batteau, and Jesse, were +hanged together, July 2, 1822. Ten days later Gullah Jack suffered death +on the gallows also. Upon an enormous gallows, erected on the lines near +Charleston, twenty-two of the black martyrs to freedom were executed on +the 22nd day of the same ill-starred month.</p> + +<p>A curious circumstance connected with this plot was the high regard in +which the insurgents were held by the whites.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> But instead of my own, I +prefer to insert in this place the remarks of the slave judges on this +head. In their story of the plot they observed: “The character and +condition of most of the insurgents were such as rendered them objects +the least liable to suspicion. It is a melancholy truth, that the +general good conduct of all the leaders, except Gullah Jack, had secured +to them not only the unlimited confidence of their owners, but they had +been indulged in every comfort and allowed every privilege compatible +with their situation in the community; and although Gullah Jack was not +remarkable for the correctness of his deportment, he by no means +sustained a bad character. But not only were the leaders of good +character and much indulged by their owners, but this was generally the +case with all who were convicted, many of them possessed the highest +confidence of their owners, and not one of bad character.”</p> + +<p>Comment on this significant fact is unnecessary. It contains a lesson +and a warning which a fool need not err in reading and understanding. +Oppression is a powder magazine exposed always to the danger of +explosion from spontaneous combustion. <i>Verbum sat sapienti.</i></p> + +<p>Another curious circumstance connected with this history, was the trial +and conviction of four white men, on indictments for attempting to +incite the slaves to insurrection. They were each sentenced to fine and +imprisonment, the fines ranging from $100 to $1,000, and the terms of +imprisonment, from three to twelve months.</p> + +<p>And now for the concluding act of this tragedy, for a final glance at +four of its black heroes and martyrs as they appeared to the slave +judges who tried them, and to whose hostile pen we are indebted for this +last impressive picture of their courage, their fortitude and their +greatness of soul. Here it is: “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. He at first questioned them in the +dictatorial, despotic manner, in which he was probably accustomed to +address them; but this not producing the desired effect, he questioned +them with affected surprise and concern for bearing false testimony +against him; still failing in his purpose, he then examined them +strictly as to dates, but could not make them contradict themselves. The +evidence being closed, he addressed the court at considerable length * * +* When he received his sentence the tears trickled down his cheeks.”</p> + +<p>I cannot, of course, speak positively respecting the exact<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> nature of +the thought or feeling which lay back of those sad tears. But of this I +am confident that they were not produced by any weak or momentary fear +of death, and I am equally sure that they were not caused by remorse for +the part which he had taken, as chief of a plot to give freedom to his +race. Perhaps they were wrung from him by the Judas-like ingratitude and +treachery, which had brought his well-laid scheme to ruin. He was about +to die, and it was Wrong not Right which with streaming eyes he saw +triumphant. Perhaps, in that solemn moment, he remembered the time, +years before, when he might have sailed for Africa, and there have +helped to build, in freedom and security, an asylum for himself and +people, where all of the glad dreams of his strenuous and stormy life +might have been realized, and also how he had put behind him the +temptation, “because” as he expressed it, “he wanted to stay and see +what he could do for his fellow creatures in bondage.” At the thought of +it all, the triumph of slavery, the treachery of black men, the +immedicable grief which arises from wasted labors and balked purposes, +and widespreading failures, is it surprising that in that supreme moment +hot tears gushed from the eyes of that stricken but lion-hearted man?</p> + +<p>But to return to the last picture of the martyrs before their judges: +“Rolla when arraigned affected not to understand the charge against him, +and when it was at his request further explained to him, assumed with +wonderful adroitness, astonishment, and surprise. He was remarkable +throughout his trial, for great presence of composure of mind. When he +was informed he was convicted and was advised to prepare for death, +though he had previously (but after his trial) confessed his guilt, he +appeared perfectly confounded, but exhibited no signs of fear. In Ned’s +behavior there was nothing remarkable, but his countenance was stern and +immovable, even whilst he was receiving the sentence of death; from his +looks it was impossible to discover or conjecture what were his +feelings. Not so with Peter, for in his countenance were strongly marked +disappointed ambition, revenge, indignation, and an anxiety to know how +far the discoveries had extended, and the same emotions were exhibited +in his conduct. He did not appear to fear personal consequences, 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 <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'behavoir'">behavior</ins> were the same when he received his sentence, +and his only words were on retiring, ‘I suppose you’ll let me see my +wife and family before I die,’ and that not in a supplicating tone. When +he was asked a day or two after, if it was possible he could wish to see +his master and family murdered who had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> treated him so kindly, he only +replied to the question by a smile.”</p> + +<p>The unquailing courage, the stern fidelity to engagements, and the +spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice which characterized so signally +the leaders of this slave plot, culminated, it seems to me, in the +unbending will and grandeur of soul of Peter Poyas, during those last, +tragic days, in Charleston. I doubt if in six thousand years the world +has produced a finer example of fortitude and greatness of mind in +presence of death, than did this Negro slave exhibit in the black hole +of the Charleston workhouse, when conversing with his Chief and Rolla +and Ned Bennett, touching their approaching death, and the safety of +their faithful and forlorn followers, he uttered thus intrepid +injunction: “Do not open your lips! Die silent as you shall see me do.” +Such words, considering the circumstances under which they were spoken, +were worthy of a son of Sparta or of Rome, when Sparta and Rome were at +their highest levels as breeders of iron men.</p> + +<p>It is verily no light thing for the Negroes of the United States to have +produced such a man, such a hero and martyr. It is certainly no light +heritage, the knowledge, that his brave blood flows in their veins. For +history does not record, that any other of its long and shining line of +heroes and martyrs, ever met death, anywhere on this globe, in a holier +cause or a sublimer mood, than died this Spartan-like slave, more than +three quarters of a century ago.</p> + +<p>May some future Rembrandt have the courage, as the genius, to paint that +tragic and imposing scene, with its deep shadows and high lights as I +see it now, the dark and hideous dungeon, the sombre figures and grim +faces of the four glorious black martyrs, with Peter in the midst, +speaking his deathless words: “Do not open your lips! Die silent as you +shall see me do.”</p> + +<p class="poem">“Right forever on the scaffold,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wrong forever on the Throne,</span><br /> +Yet that scaffold sways the future,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And, behind the dim unknown,</span><br /> +Standeth God within the shadow,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Keeping watch above His own.”</span></p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Right on the Scaffold, or The Martyrs +of 1822, by Archibald H. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Right on the Scaffold, or The Martyrs of 1822 + The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 7 + +Author: Archibald H. Grimke + +Release Date: February 16, 2010 [EBook #31290] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIGHT ON THE SCAFFOLD *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + + The American Negro Academy. + + OCCASIONAL PAPERS No 7. + + + Right on the Scaffold, or + The Martyrs of 1822. + + BY MR. ARCHIBALD H. GRIMKE. + + + PRICE FIFTEEN CENTS. + + WASHINGTON, D. C. + Published by the Academy, + 1901. + + + + +The Martyrs of 1822. + + +He was black but comely. Nature gave him a royal body, nobly planned and +proportioned, and noted for its great strength. There was that in his +countenance, which bespoke a mind within to match that body, a mind of +uncommon native intelligence, force of will, and capacity to dominate +others. His manners were at once abrupt and crafty, his temper was +imperious, his passions and impulses were those of a primitive ruler, +and his heart was the heart of a lion. He was often referred to as an +old man, but he was not an old man, when he died on a gallows at +Charleston, S. C., July 2, 1822. No, he was by no means an old man, +whether judged by length of years or strength of body, for he was on +that memorable July day, seventy-eight years ago, not more than +fifty-six years old, although the hair on his head and face was then +probably white. This circumstance and the pre-eminence accorded him by +his race neighbors, might account for the references to him, as to that +of an old man. + +All things considered, he was truly an extraordinary man. It is +impossible to say where he was born, or who were his parents. He was, +alas! as far as my knowledge of his personal history goes, a man without +a past. He might have been born of slave parentage in the West Indies, +or of royal ones in Africa, where, in that case, he was kidnapped and +sold subsequently into slavery in America. I had almost said that he was +a man without a name. He is certainly a man without ancestral name. For +the name to which he answered up to the age of fourteen, has been lost +forever. After that time he has been known as Denmark Vesey. Denmark is +a corruption of Telemaque, the praenomen bestowed upon him at that age +by a new master, and Vesey was the cognomen of that master who was +captain of an American vessel, engaged in the African slave trade +between the islands of St. Thomas and Sto. Domingo. It is on board of +Captain Vesey's slave vessel that we catch the earliest glimpse of our +hero. Deeply interesting moment is that, which revealed thus to us the +Negro lad, deeply interesting and tragical for one and the same cause. + +This first appearance of him upon the stage of history occurred in the +year which ended virtually the war for American Independence, 1781, +during the passage between St. Thomas and Cap Francais, of Captain +Vesey's slave bark with a cargo of 390 slaves. The lad, Telemaque, was +a part of that sad cargo, undistinguished at the outset of the voyage +from the rest of the human freight. Of the 389 others, we know absolutely +nothing. Not an incident, nor a token, not even a name has floated to us +across the intervening years, from all that multitudinous misery, from +such an unspeakable tragedy, except that the ship reached its destination, +and the slaves were sold. Like boats that pass at sea, that slave vessel +loomed for a lurid instant on the horizon, and was gone forever--all but +Denmark Vesey. How it happened that he did not vanish with the rest of +his ill-fated fellows, will be set down in this paper, which has essayed +to describe the slave plot which he planned, with which his name is +identified, and by which it ought to be, for all time, hallowed in the +memory of every man, woman and child of Negro descent in America. + +On that voyage Captain Vesey was strongly attracted by the "beauty, +intelligence, and alertness" of one of the slaves on board. So were the +ship's officers. This particular object of interest, on the part of the +slave-traders, was a black boy of fourteen summers. He was quickly made +a sort of ship's pet and plaything, receiving new garments from his +admirers, and the high sounding name, as I have already mentioned, of +Telemaque, which in slave lingo was subsequently metamorphosed into +Denmark. The lad found himself in sudden favor, and lifted above his +companions in bondage by the brief and idle regard of that ship's +company. Brief and idle, indeed, was the interest which he had aroused +in the breasts of those men, as the sequel showed. But while it lasted +it seemed doubtless very genuine to the boy, as such evidences of human +regard must have afforded him, in his forlorn state, the keenest pleasure. +Bitter, therefore, must have been his disappointment and grief to find, +at the end, that he had, in reality, no hold whatever upon the regard of +the slave traders. True he had been separated by captain and officers +from the other slaves during the voyage, but this ephemeral distinction +was speedily lost upon the arrival of the vessel at Cap Francais, for he +was then sold as a part of the human freight. Ah! he had not been to +those men so much as even a pet cat or dog, for with a pet cat or dog +they would not have so lightly parted, as they had done with him. He had +served their purpose, had killed for them the dull days of a dull sail +between ports, and he a boy with warm blood in his heart, and hot +yearnings for love in his soul. + +But the slave youth, so beautiful and attractive, was not to live his +life in the island of Sto. Domingo, or to terminate just then his +relations with the ship and her officers, however much Captain Vesey had +intended to do so. For Fate, by an unexpected circumstance, threw, for +better or for worse, master and slave together again, after they had +apparently parted forever in the slave mart of the Cape. This is how +Fate played the unexpected in the boy's life. According to a local law +for the regulation of the slave trade in that place, the seller of a +slave of unsound health might be compelled by the buyer to take him +back, upon the production of a certificate to that effect from the royal +physician of the port. The purchaser of Telemaque availed himself of +this law to redeliver him to Captain Vesey on his return voyage to Sto. +Domingo. For the royal physician of the town had meanwhile certified +that the lad was subject to epileptic fits. The act of sale was thereupon +cancelled, and the old relations of master and slave between Captain +Vesey and Telemaque, were resumed. Thus, without design, perhaps, however +passionately he might have desired it, the boy found himself again on +board of his old master's slave vessel, where he had been petted and +elevated in favor high above his fellow-slaves. I say _perhaps_ +advisedly, for I confess that it is by no means clear to me whether +those epileptic fits were real or whether they were in truth feigned, +and therefore the initial _ruse de guerre_ of that bright young +intelligence in its long battle with slavery. + +However, I do not mean to consume space with speculations on this head. +Suffice to say that Telemaque's condition was improved by the event. Nor +had Captain Vesey any cause to quarrel with the fate which returned to +him the beautiful Negro youth. For it is recorded that for twenty years +thereafter he proved a faithful servant to the old slave trader, who +retiring in due course of time from his black business, took up his +abode in Charleston, S. C, where Denmark went to live with him. There in +his new home dame fortune again remembered her protege, turning her +formidable wheel a second time in his favor. It was then that Denmark, +grown to manhood, drew the grand prize of freedom. He was about +thirty-four years old when this immense boon came to him. + +It is not known for how many eager and anxious months or even years, +Denmark Vesey had patronized East Bay Street Lottery of Charleston prior +to 1800, when he was rewarded with a prize of $1,500. With $600 of this +money he bought himself of Captain Vesey. He was at last his own master, +in possession of a small capital, and of a good trade, carpentry, which +he practiced with great industry. He was successful, massed in time +considerable wealth, became a solid man of the community in spite of his +color, winning the confidence of the whites, and respect from the blacks +amounting almost to reverence. He married--was much married it was said, +which I see no reason to doubt, in view of the polygamous example set +him by many of the respectabilities of the master-race in that +remarkably pious old slave town. A plurality of children rose up, in +consequence, to him from the plurality of his family ties; rose up to +him, but they were not his, for following the condition of the mothers, +they were, under the Slave-Code, the chattels of other men. + +This cruel wrong eat deep into Vesey's mind. Of course it was most +outrageous for him, a black man, to concern himself so much about the +human chattels of white men, albeit those human chattels were his own +children. What had he, a social pariah in Christian America, to do with +such high caste things as a heart and natural affections? But somehow he +did have a heart, and it was in the right place, and natural affections +for his own flesh and blood, like men with a white skin. 'Twas monstrous +in him to be sure, but he could not help it. The slave iron had entered +his soul, and the wound which it made rankled in secret there. + +Not alone the sad condition of his own children embittered his lot, but +the sad condition of other black men's children as well. He yearned to +help all to better social conditions--to that freedom which is the gift +of God to mankind. He yearned to possess this God-given boon, in its +fullness and entirety, for himself before he passed thence to the grave. +For he possessed it not. He had indeed bought himself, but he soon learned +that the right to himself which he had purchased from his master was not +the freedom of a man, but the freedom accorded by the Slave-Code, to a +black man, a freedom so restrictive in quantity and mean in quality that +no white man, however low, could be made to live contentedly under it for +a day. + +In judging this black man, oh! ye critics and philosophers, judge him +not hastily and harshly before you have at least tried to put yourselves +in his place. You may not even then succeed in doing him justice, for +while he had his faults, and was sorely tempted, he was, nevertheless, +in every inch of him, from the soles of his feet to the crown of his +head, a man. + +At the period which we have now reached in his history, he was in +possession of a fairly good education--was able to read and write, and +to speak with fluency the French and English languages. He had traveled +extensively over the world in his master's slave vessel, and had thus +obtained a stock of valuable experiences, and a wide range of knowledge +of men and things of which few inhabitants, whether black or white, in +the slave community of Charleston, during the first quarter of the +nineteenth century could truthfully have boasted. Yet in spite of these +undeniable facts, in spite of his unquestioned ability and economic +efficiency as an industrial factor in that city, he was in legal and +actual ownership of precious little of that right to "life, liberty, and +the pursuit of happiness" which the most ignorant and worthless white +man enjoyed as a birthright. Wherever he moved or wished to move he was +met and surrounded by the most galling and degrading social and civil +conditions and proscriptions. True he held a bill of sale of his person, +had ceased to be the chattel property of an individual, but he still +wore chains, which kept him, and which were intended to keep him and +such as him, slaves of the community forever, deprived of every civil +right which white men, their neighbors, were bound to respect. For +instance, were he wronged in his person or property by any member of the +dominant race, be the offender man, woman, or child, Vesey could have +had no redress in the courts, in case, the proof of his complaint or the +enforcement of his claim depended exclusively upon the testimony of +himself and of that of black witnesses, however respectable. + +Such a man, we may be sure, was conscious of the possession, +notwithstanding his black skin and blacker social and civil condition, +of longings, aspirations, which the Slave-Code made it a crime for him +to satisfy. He must have felt the stir of forces and faculties within +him, which, under the heaviest pains and penalties, he was forbidden to +exercise. Thus robbed of freedom, ravished of manhood, what was he to +do? Ay, what ought he to have done under the circumstances? Ought he to +have done what multitudes had done before him, meek and submissive folk, +generations and generations of them, borne tamely like them his chains, +without an effort to break them, and break instead his lion's spirit? +Ought he to have contented himself with such a woeful existence, and to +have been willing at its end to mingle his ashes with the miserable dust +of all those countless masses of forgotten and unresisting slaves? +"Never!" replied what was bravest and worthiest of respect in the breast +of this truly great-hearted man. The burning wrong which he felt against +slavery had sunk in his mind below the reach of the grappling tongs of +reason. It lay like a charge of giant powder, with its slow match +attachment in the unplumbed depths of a soul which knew not fear; of a +soul which was as hot with smouldering hate and rage as is a live +volcano with its unvomited flame and lava. As well, under the +circumstances, have tried to subdue the profound fury of the one with +argument, as to quench the hidden fires of the other with water. + +He knew, none better, that his oppressors were strong and that he was +weak; that he had but one slender chance in a hundred of redressing by +force the wrongs of himself and race. He knew too, that failure in such +a desperate enterprise could have for himself but a single issue, viz.: +certain death. But he believed that success on the other hand meant for +him and his the gain of that which alone was able to make their lives +worth the living, to wit.: a free man's portion, his opportunity for the +full development and free play of all of his powers amid that society in +which was cast his lot. And for that portion, so precious, he was ready +to take the one chance with all of its tremendous risks, to stake that +miserable modicum of freedom which he possessed, the wealth laboriously +accumulated by him, and life itself. + +It is impossible to fix exactly the time when the bold idea of resistance +entered his brains, or to say when he began to plan for its realization, +and after that to prepare the blacks for its reception. Before embarking +on his perilous enterprise he must have carefully reckoned on time, long +and indefinite, as an essential factor in its successful achievement. +For, certain it is, he took it, years in fact, made haste slowly and with +supreme discretion and self-control. He appeared to have thoroughly +acquainted himself with the immense difficulties which beset an uprising +of the blacks. Not once, I think, did he underestimate the strength of +his foes. A past grand master in the art of intrigue among the servile +population, he was equally adept in knowledge of the weak spots for +attack in the defences of the slave system, knew perfectly where the +masters could best be taken at a disadvantage. All the facts of his +history combine to give him a character for profound acting. In the +underground agitation, which during a period of three or four years, he +conducted in the city of Charleston and over a hundred miles of the +adjacent country, he seemed to have been gifted with a sort of Protean +ability. His capacity for practicing secrecy and dissimulation where +they were deemed necessary to his end, must have been prodigious, when +it is considered that during the years covered by his underground +agitation, it is not recorded that he made a single false note, or took +a single false step to attract attention to himself and movement, or to +arouse over all that territory included in that agitation and among all +those white people involved in its terrific consequences, the slightest +suspicion of danger. + +In his underground agitation, Vesey, with an instinct akin to genius, +seemed to have excluded from his preliminary action everything like +conscious combination or organization among his disciples, and to have +confined himself strictly to the immediate business in hand at that +stage of his plot, which was the sowing of seeds of discontent, the +fomenting of hatred among the blacks, bond and free alike, toward the +whites. And steadily with that patience which Lowell calls the "passion +of great hearts," he pushed deeper and deeper into the slave lump the +explosive principles of inalienable human rights. He did not flinch from +kindling in the bosoms of the slaves a hostility toward the masters as +burning as that which he felt toward them in his own breast. He had, +indeed, reached such a pitch of race enmity that, as he was often heard +to declare, "he would not like to have a white man in his presence." + +And so, devoured by a supreme passion, mastered by a single predominant +idea, Vesey looked for occasions, and when they were wanting he created +them, to preach his new and terrible gospel of liberty and hate. Thus +only could he hope to render their condition intolerable to the slaves, +the production of which was the indispensable first step in the +consummation of his design. Otherwise what possibility of final success +could a contented slave population have offered him? He needed a fulcrum +on which to plant his lever. He had nowhere in such an enterprise to +place it, but in the discontent and hatred of the slaves toward their +masters. Therefore on the fulcrum of race hatred he rested his lever of +freedom for his people. + +As the discontented bondsmen heard afresh with Vesey's ears the hateful +clank of their chains, they would, in time, learn to think of Vesey and +to turn, perhaps, to him for leadership and deliverance. Brooding over +their lot as Vesey had revealed it to them, they might move of themselves +to improve or end it altogether, by adopting some such bold plan as +Vesey's. Meantime he would continue to wait and prepare for that moment, +while they would be training in habits of deceit, of deep dissimulation, +that formidable weapon of the weak in conflict with the strong, that +_ars artium_ of slaves in their attempts to break their chains--a habit +of smiling and fawning on unjust and cruel power, while bleeds in secret +their fiery wound, rages and plots there also their passionate hate, and +glows there too their no less passionate hope for freedom. + +Everywhere through the dark subterranean world of the slave, in +Charleston and the neighboring country, went with his great passion of +hate and his great purpose of freedom, this untiring breeder of +sedition. And where he moved beneath the thin crust of that upper world +of the master-race, there broke in his wake whirling and shooting +currents of new and wild sensations in the abysses of that under world +of the slave-race. Down deep below the ken of the masters was toiling +this volcanic man, forming the lava-floods, the flaming furies, and the +awful horrors of a slave uprising. + +Nowhere idle was that underground plotter against the whites. Even on +the street where he happened to meet two or three blacks, he would bring +the conversation to his one consuming subject, and preach to them his +one unending sermon of freedom and hate. It was then as if his stern +voice, with its deep organ chords of passion, was saying to those men: +"Forget not, oh my brothers your misery. Remember how ye are wronged +every day and hour, ye and your mothers and sisters, your wives and +children. Remember the generations gone weeping and clanking heavy chains +from the cradle to the grave. Remember the oppression of the living, who +with heart-break and death-wounds, are treading their mournful way in +bitter anguish and despair across burning desert sands, with parched soul +and shriveled minds, with piteous thirsts, and terrible tortures of body +and spirit. Weep for them, weep for yourselves too, if ye will, but learn +to hate, ay, to hate with such hatred as blazes within me, the wicked +slave-system and the wickeder white men who oppress and wrong us thus." + +Ever on the alert was he for a text or a pretext to advance his +underground movement. Did he and fellow blacks for example, encounter a +white person on the street, and did Vesey's companions make the +customary bow, which blacks were wont to make to whites, a form of +salutation born of generations of slave-blood, meanly humble and +cringingly self-effacing, rebuking such an exhibition of sheer and +shameless servility and lack of proper self-respect, he would thereupon +declare to them the self-evident truth that all men were born free and +equal, that the master, with his white skin, was in the sight of God no +whit better than his black slaves, and that for himself he would not +cringe like that to any man. + +Should the sorry wretches, bewildered by Vesey's boldness and dazed by +his terrifying doctrines, reply defensively "we are slaves," the harsh +retort "you deserve to remain so," was, without doubt, intended to sting +if possible, their abject natures into sensibility on the subject of +their wrongs, to galvanize their rotting souls back to manhood, and to +make their base and sieve-like minds capable of receiving and retaining, +at least, a single fermenting idea. And when Vesey was thereupon asked +"What can we do?" he knew by that token that the sharp point of his +spear had pierced the slavish apathy of ages of oppression, and that +thenceforth light would find its red and revolutionary way to the +imprisoned minds within. To the query "What can we do?" his invariable +response was, "Go and buy a spelling book and read the fable of Hercules +and the Wagoner." They were to look for Hercules in their own stout +arms and backs, and not in the clouds, to brace their iron shoulders +against the wheels of adversity and oppression, and to learn that +self-help was ever the best prayer. + +At other times, in order to familiarize the blacks, I suppose, with the +notion of equality, and to heighten probably at the same time his +influence over them, he would select a moment when some of them were +within earshot, to enter into conversation with certain white men, whose +characters he had studied for his purpose, and during the shuttle-cock +and battledore of words which was sure to follow, would deftly let fly +some bold remark on the subject of slavery. "He would go so far," on +such occasions it was said, "that had not his declarations in such +situations been clearly proved, they would scarcely have been credited." +Such action was daring almost to rashness, but in it is also apparent +the deep method of a clever and calculating mind. + +The sundry religious classes or congregations with Negro leaders or local +preachers, into which were formed the Negro members of the various +churches of Charleston, furnished Vesey with the first rudiments of an +organization, and at the same time with a singularly safe medium for +conducting his underground agitation. It was customary, at that time, +for these Negro congregations to meet for purposes of worship entirely +free from the presence of the whites. Such meetings were afterward +forbidden to be held except in the presence of at least one representative +of the dominant race. But during the three or four years prior to the year +1822, they certainly offered Denmark Vesey regular, easy and safe +opportunities for preaching his gospel of liberty and hate. And we are +left in no doubt whatever in regard to the uses to which he put those +gatherings of blacks. + +Like many of his race he possessed the gift of gab, as the silver in the +tongue and the gold in the full or thick-lipped mouth are oftentimes +contemptuously characterized. And like many of his race he was a devoted +student of the Bible to whose interpretation he brought like many other +Bible students, not confined to the Negro race, a good deal of +imagination, and not a little of superstition, which with some natures +is perhaps but another name for the desires of the heart. Thus equipped +it is no wonder that Vesey, as he pored over the Old Testament Scriptures, +found many points of similitude in the history of the Jews and that of +the slaves in the United States. They were both peculiar peoples. They +were both Jehovah's peculiar peoples, one in the past, the other in the +present. And it seemed to him that as Jehovah bent his ear, and bared +his arm once in behalf of the one, so would he do the same for the +other. It was all vividly real to his thought, I believe, for to his +mind thus had said the Lord. + +He ransacked the Bible for apposite and terrible texts, whose commands +in the olden times, to the olden people, were no less imperative upon +the new times and the new people. This new people was also commanded to +arise and destroy their enemies and the city in which they dwelt, "both +man and woman, young and old, * * * with the edge of the sword." Believing +superstitiously, as he did, in the stern and Nemesis-like God of the Old +Testament, he looked confidently for a day of vengeance and retribution +for the blacks. He felt, I doubt not, something peculiarly applicable to +his enterprise, and intensely personal to himself in the stern and +exultant prophecy of Zachariah, fierce and sanguinary words which were +constantly in his mouth: "Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against +those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle." According to +Vesey's lurid exegeisis "those nations" in the text meant, beyond a +peradventure, the cruel masters, and Jehovah was to go forth to fight +against them for the poor slaves, and on which ever side fought that day +the Almighty God, on that side would assuredly rest victory and +deliverance. + +It will not be denied that Vesey's plan contemplated the total +annihilation of the white population of Charleston. Nursing for many +dark years the bitter wrongs of himself and race had filled him, without +doubt, with a mad spirit of revenge, and had so given him a decided +predilection for shedding the blood of his oppressors. But if he intended +to kill them to satisfy a desire for vengeance, he intended to do so +also on broader ground. The conspirators, he argued, had no choice in +the matter, but were compelled to adopt a policy of extermination by the +necessity of their position. The liberty of the blacks was in the +balance of fate against the lives of the whites. He could strike that +balance in favor of the blacks only by the total destruction of the +whites. Therefore, the whites, men, women and children, were doomed to +death. "What is the use of killing the louse and leaving the nit?" he +asked coarsely and grimly on an occasion when the matter was under +consideration. And again he was reported to have, with unrelenting +temper, represented to his friends in secret council, that, "It was for +our safety not to spare one white skin alive." And so it was unmistakably +in his purpose to leave not a single egg lying about Charleston, when he +was done with it, out of which might possibly be hatched another future +slave-holder and oppressor of his people. "Thorough" was in truth, the +merciless motto of that terrible man. + +All roads, on the red map of his plot, led to Rome. Every available +instrument which fell in his way, he utilized to deepen and extend his +underground agitation among the blacks. Wherefore it was that he seized +upon the sectional struggle which was going on in Congress over the +admission of Missouri, and pressed it to do service for his cause. The +passionate wish, unconsciously perhaps, colored if it did not create the +belief on his part, that the real cause of that great debate in +Washington, and excitement in the country at large, was a movement for +general emancipation of the slaves. It was said that he went so far in +this direction as to put it into the heads of the blacks that Congress +had actually enacted an emancipation law, and that therefore their +continued enslavement was illegal. Such preaching must have certainly +added fresh fuel to the deep sense of injury, then burning in the +breasts of many of the slaves, and must have operated also to prepare +them for the next step which Vesey's plan of campaign contemplated, +viz.: a resort to force to wrest from the whites the freedom which was +theirs, not only by the will of Heaven, but as well by the supreme law +of the land. + +A period of underground agitation, such as Vesey had carried on for +about three or four years, will, unless arrested, pass naturally into +one of organized action. Vesey's movement reached, in the winter of +1821-22, such a stage. As far as it is known, he had up to this time +done the work of agitator singlehanded and alone. Singlehanded and alone +he had gone to and fro through that under world of the slave, preaching +his gospel of liberty and hate. But about Christmas of 1821, the long +lane of his labors made a sharp turn. This circumstance tended necessarily +to throw other actors upon the scene, as shall presently appear. + +The first step taken at the turn of his long and laborious lane was +calculated to put to the utmost test his ability as a leader, as an arch +plotter. For it was nothing less momentous than the choice by him of fit +associates. On the wisdom with which such a choice was made, would +depend his own life and the success of his undertaking. Among thousands +of disciples he had to find the right men to whom to entrust his secret +purpose and its execution in co-operation with himself. The step was +indeed crucial and in taking it he needed not alone the mental qualities +which he had exhibited in his role of underground agitator, viz.: +serpent-like cunning and intelligence under the direction of the most +alert and flexible discretion, but as well a practical and profound +knowledge of the human nature with which he had to deal, a keen and +infallible insight into individual character. + +It is not too much to claim for Denmark Vesey, that his genius rose to +the emergency, and proved itself equal to a surpassingly difficult +situation, in the singular fitness of the five principal men on whom +fell his election to associate leadership, with himself, and to the work +of organizing the blacks for resistance. These five men, who became his +ablest and most efficient lieutenants, were Peter Poyas, Rolla and Ned +Bennett, Monday Gell and Gullah Jack. They were all slaves and, I believe, +full-blooded Negroes. They constituted a remarkable quintet of slave +leaders, combined the very qualities of head and heart which Vesey most +needed at the stage then reached by his unfolding plot. For fear lest +some of their critics might sneer at the sketch of them which I am +tempted to give, as lacking in probability and truth, I will insert +instead the careful estimate placed upon them severally by their slave +judges. And here it is: "In the selection of his leaders, Vesey showed +great penetration 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 observing secrecy where it was +necessary; he was not to be daunted nor impeded by difficulties, and +though confident of success, was careful against any obstacles or +casualties which might arise, and intent upon discovering every means +which might be in their favor 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." + +From this picture, painted by bitter enemies, who were also their +executioners, could any person, ignorant of the circumstances and the +history of those men, possibly guess, with the exception of Gullah Jack, +to what race the originals belonged, or think you, that such a person +would so much as dream that they were in fact, as they were in the eye +of the law under which they lived, nothing more than so many human +chattels, subject like cattle to the caprice and the cruelty of their +owners? + +Such nevertheless was the remarkable group of blacks on whom had fallen +Vesey's choice. And did they not present an assemblage of high and +striking qualities? Here were coolness in action, calculation, foresight, +plausibility in address, fidelity to engagements, secretiveness, intrepid +courage, nerves of iron in the presence of danger, inflexible purpose, +unbending will, and last though not least in its relations to the whole, +superstition incarnate in the character of the Negro conjurer. Masterly +was indeed the combination, and he had no ordinary gift for leadership, +who was able to hit it off at one surprising stroke. + +As the work of organized preparation for the uprising advanced, Vesey +added presently to his staff two principal and several minor recruiting +agents, who operated in Charleston and in the country to the North of +the city as far as the Santee, the Combahee, and Georgetown. Their +exploitation in the interest of the plot extended to the South into the +two large islands of James and John's, as well as to plantations across +the Ashley River. Vesey himself, it was said, traveled southwardly from +Charleston between seventy and eighty miles, and it was presumed by the +writers that he did so on business connected with the conspiracy, which +I consider altogether probable. He had certainly thrown himself into the +movement with might and main. We know, that its direction absorbed +finally his whole time and energy. "He ceased working himself at his +trade," so ran the testimony of a witness at his trial, "and employed +himself exclusively in enlisting men." + +The number of blacks engaged in the enterprise was undoubtedly large. It +is a sufficiently conservative estimate to place this number, I think, +at two or three thousand, at least. One recruiting officer alone, Frank +Ferguson, enlisted in the undertaking the slaves of four plantations +within forty miles of the city; and in the city itself, it was said that +the personal roll of Peter Poyas embraced a membership of six hundred +names. More than one witness placed the conjectural strength of Vesey's +forces as high as 9,000, but I am inclined to write this down as a gross +overestimate of the people actually enrolled as members of the conspiracy. + +Here is an example of the nice calculation and discretion of the man who +was the soul of the conspiracy. It is contained in the testimony of an +intensely hostile witness, a slave planter, whose slaves were suspected +of complicity in the intended uprising. + +"The orderly conduct of the Negroes in any district of country within +forty miles of Charleston," wrote this witness, "is no evidence that +they were ignorant of the intended attempt. A more orderly gang than my +own is not to be found in this State, and one of Denmark Vesey's +directions was, that they should assume the most implicit obedience." + +Take another instance of the extraordinary aptitude of the slave leaders +for the conduct of their dangerous enterprise. It illustrates Peter's +remarkable foresight and his faculty for scenting danger, and making at +the same time provision for meeting it. In giving an order to one of his +assistants, said he, "Take care and don't mention it (the plot) to those +waiting men who receive presents of old coats, &c., from their masters +or they'll betray us." And then as if to provide doubly against betrayal +at their hands, he added "I'll speak to them." His apprehension of +disaster to the cause from this class was great, but it was not greater +than the reality, as the sequel abundantly proved. Let me not, however, +anticipate. + +If there were immense difficulties in the way of recruiting, there were +even greater ones in the way of supplying the recruits with proper arms, +or with any arms at all for that matter. But vast as were the +difficulties, the leaders fronted them with buoyant and unquailing +spirit, and rose, where other men of less faith and courage would have +given up in despair, to the level of seeming impossibilities, and to the +top of a truly appalling situation. Where were they, indeed, to procure +arms? There was a blacksmith among them, who was set to manufacturing +pike-heads and bayonets, and to turning long knives into daggers and +dirks. Arms in the houses of the white folks they designed to borrow +after the manner of the Jews from the Egyptians. But for their main +supply they counted confidently upon the successful seizure, by means of +preconcerted movements, of the principal places of deposit of arms +within the limits of the city, of which there were several. The capture +of these magazines and storehouses was quite within the range of +probability, for every one of them was at the time in a comparatively +unprotected state. Two large gun and powder stores, situated about three +and a half miles beyond the Lines, and containing nearly eight hundred +muskets and bayonets, were, by arrangement with Negro employees +connected with them, at the mercy of the insurgents whenever they were +ready to move upon them. The large building in the city, where was +deposited the greater portion of the arms of the State, was strangely +neglected in the same regard. Its main entrance, opening on the street, +consisted of ordinary wooden doors, without the interposition between +them and the public of even a brick wall. + +In the general plan of attack, the capture of this building, which held +tactically the key to the defense of Charleston, in the event of a slave +uprising, was assigned to Peter Poyas, the ablest of Vesey's lieutenants. +Peter, probably disguised by means of false hair and whiskers, was at a +given signal at midnight of the appointed day, to move suddenly with his +band upon this important post. The difficulty of the undertaking lay in +the vigilance of the sentinels doing a duty before this building, and +its success depended upon Peter's ability to surprise and slay this man +before he could sound the alarm. Peter was confident of his ability to +kill the sentinel and capture the building, and I think that he had good +ground for his confidence. In conversation with an anxious follower, who +feared lest the watchfulness of the guard might defeat the attempt, +Peter remarked that he "would advance a little distance ahead, and if he +could only get a _grip at his throat he was a gone man_, for his sword +was very sharp; he had sharpened it, and made it so sharp it had cut his +finger." And as if to cast the last lingering doubt out of his disciple +in regard to his (Peter's) ability to fix the sentinel, he showed him +the bloody cut on his finger. + +Other leaders, at the head of their respective bands, were at the same +time, and from six different quarters, to attack the city, surprising and +seizing all of its strategical points, and the buildings, where were +deposited its arms and ammunition. A body of insurgent horse was, +meanwhile, to keep the streets clear, cutting down without mercy all +white persons, and suspected blacks, whom they might encounter, in order +to prevent the whites from concentrating or spreading the alarm through +the doomed town. Such was Denmark Vesey's masterly and merciless plan of +campaign in bare outline for the capture of Charleston, a plan, which, +with such a sagacious head as was Vesey, was entirely feasible, and +which would have, undoubtedly, succeeded but for the happening of the +unexpected at a critical stage of its execution. Against such an +occurrence as was this one, no man in Vesey's situation, however supreme +might have been his ability as a leader, could have completely provided. +The element of treachery could not by any device have been wholly +eliminated from his chapter of accidents and chances. To do what he set +out to do, with the means at his disposition, Vesey had of necessity to +take the tremendous risk of betrayal at the hand of some black traitor. +It was, in reality, sad to relate his greatest risk, and became the one +insurmountable barrier in the way of his final success. + +Sunday at midnight of July 14, 1822, was fixed upon originally as the +time for beginning his attack upon the city. But about the last of May, +owing to indications that the plot had been discovered, he shortened the +period of its preparation, and appointed instead midnight of Sunday, +June 16th, of the same year. His reason for selecting the original date +illustrates his careful and astute attention to details in making his +plans. He had noted that the white population of Charleston was subject, +to a certain extent, to regular tidal movements; that at one season of +the year this movement was at high tide, and that at another it was at +low tide. It was no great difficulty, under the circumstances, for a man +like Denmark Vesey to forecast with reasonable accuracy these recurrent +movements, and natural enough that he should have planned his attack with +reference to them. And this was exactly what he did when he appointed July +14th as the original date for beginning the insurrection. At that time the +city was less capable than at an earlier date to cope with a slave +uprising, owing to the departure in large numbers from it, for summer +resorts, of its wealthier classes. + +Again his selection of the first day of the week in both instances was +equally the result of careful calculation on his part, as on that day +large bodies of slaves from the adjacent plantations and islands were +wont to visit the town without molestation, whereas on no other day +could this have been done. Thus, without exciting alarm, did Vesey plan +to introduce his Trojan horse or country bands into the city, where they +were to be concealed until the hour for beginning the attack. + +But the attack, carefully planned as it was, did not take place. For the +thing which Peter Poyas feared, and had vainly endeavored to provide +against, came to pass. One of those very "waiting men," for whom Peter +entertained such deep distrust, and against whom he had raised his voice +in sharp warning, betrayed to his master the plot, the secret of which +had been communicated to him by an overzealous convert, whose discretion +was shorter than his tongue. All this happened on the morning of the +30th of May, and by sunset of that day the secret was in possession of +the authorities of the city. Precautionary measures were quickly taken +by them to guard against surprise, and to discover the full extent of +the intended uprising. + +Luckily for the conspirators the information given by the traitor was +vague and general. Nor was the city able to elicit from the informant of +this man, who had been promptly arrested and subjected to examination, +any disclosures of a more specific or satisfactory character. He was, in +truth, in possession of but few particulars of the plot, and was therefore +unable to give any greater definiteness to the government's stock of +knowledge relative to the subject. Suspicion, however, lighted on Peter +Poyas and Mingo Harth, one of Vesey's minor leaders. They were, thereupon +apprehended, and their personal effects searched, but nothing was found to +inculpate either, except an enigmatical letter not understood by the +authorities at the time. This circumstance, coupled with the coolness and +consummate acting of the pair of suspected leaders, perplexed and deceived +the authorities to such a degree that they ordered the discharge of the +prisoners. But the fright and anxiety of the city were not so readily got +rid of. They held Charleston uneasy and apprehensive of danger, and so +kept it suspicious and watchful. + +Things remained in this state of watchfulness anxiety, on both sides, for +about a week. Vesey on his part remitted nothing of his preparations for +the coming 16th of June, but pushed them if possible with increased vigor +and secrecy. He held the while nocturnal meetings at his house on Bull +street, where modified arrangements for the execution of his plans were +broached and matured. How he dared at this juncture to incur such extreme +hazard of detection, it is difficult to understand. But he and his +confederates were men of the most indomitable purpose, and took in the +desperate circumstances, in which they were then placed, the most +desperate chances. They had to. They could not do otherwise. + +The city on its side, was listening during a part of this same week to a +second confession of that poor fellow whose tongue had outmeasured his +discretion. It was listening with reviving dread to the wild and +incoherent disclosures of this man, whom it had flung into the black +hole of the workhouse. There, crazed by misery and fear of death, he +raved about a plot among the blacks to massacre the whites and to put +the town to fire and pillage. This second installment of William Paul's +excited disclosures, while it increased the sense of impending peril, +did not put the government in better position to avert it. For groping +in the dark still, it knew not yet where or whom to strike. But in this +period of horrible suspense and uncertainty its suspicion fell on +another one of Vesey's principal leaders. This time it was on Ned +Bennett that the city's distrustful eye fastened. Like that game which +children play where the object of search is hidden, and where the +seekers as they approach near and yet nearer to the place of concealment, +grow warm and then warmer, so was the city, in its terrible search for +the source of its danger, growing hot and hotter. That was, indeed, a +frightful moment for the conspirators when Ned Bennett became suspected. +The city, as the children say in their game, was beginning to burn, for +it seemed as if it must at the next move, thrust its iron hand into that +underground world where the plot was hatching, and clutching the heart +of the great enterprise, snatch it, conspiracy and conspirators, into +the light of day. But it was at such a tremendous moment of danger, that +the leaders, unawed by the imminency of discovery, took a step to throw +the city off of their scent, so daring, dextrous and unexpected as to +knock the breath out of us. + +Ned Bennett, whom the city was watching as a cat, before springing, +watches a mouse, went voluntarily before the Intendant or Mayor of the +city, and asked to be examined, if so be he was an object of suspicion +to the authorities. Ned was so surprisingly cool and indifferent, and +wore so naturally an air of conscious innocence, that the great man was +again deceived, and the city was thus thrown a second time out of the +course of its game. Ned's arrest and examination were postponed, as the +authorities in their perplexity were afraid to take at the time any +decisive action, lest it might prove premature and abortive. And so +lying on its arms, the city waited and watched for fresh developments +and disclosures, while the insurgent leaders, in their underground world +watched warily too, and pushed forward with undiminished confidence +their final preparations, when they would, out of the dark, strike +suddenly their liberating and annihilating blow. This awful state of +suspense, of the most watchful suspicion and anxiety on one side, and of +wary and anxious preparations on the other, continued for about five or +six days, when it was ended by a second act of treachery emanating from +the distrusted class of "waiting men," whose highest aspirations did not +seem to reach above their masters' cast off garments. + +Unlike the first, the information furnished to the authorities by the +second traitor, was not lacking in definiteness. For this fellow knew +what he was talking about. He knew almost all of the leaders, and many +particulars connected with the plot. The city was thus placed in +possession of the secret. It knew now the names of the ringleaders. But +confident, apparently, of its ability to throttle the intended +insurrection, it allowed two days to pass and the 16th of June, without +making any arrests. Cat-like it crouched ready to spring, while it +followed the unconscious movements of the principal conspirators. For +Vesey and his principal officers were at that time, ignorant of the +second betrayal, and therefore of the fact that they were from the 14th +of June at the mercy of the police. On Saturday night, June 15th, an +incident occurred, however, which warned them that they were betrayed, +and that disaster was close at hand. This incident revealed as by a +flash of lightning the hopelessness of their position. On that day Vesey +had instructed one of his aids, Jesse Blackwood, to go into the country +in the evening for the purpose of preparing the plantation slaves to +enter the city on the day following, which was Sunday, June 16th, the +time fixed for beginning the insurrection. Jesse was unable to +discharge this mission, either on Saturday night or Sunday morning, +owning to the increased strength and vigilance of the city police and of +its patrol guard. He had succeeded on Sunday morning in getting by two +of their lines, but at the third line he was halted and turned back into +the city. When this ominous fact was reported to the Old Chief, Vesey +became very sorrowful. He and the other leaders must have instantly +perceived that they were caught, as in a trap, and that the end was +near. It was probably on this Sunday that they destroyed their papers, +lists of names and other incriminating evidence. The shadow of the +approaching catastrophe deepened and spread rapidly around and above +them as they watched and waited helplessly under the huge asp of +slavery, which enraged and now completely coiled, was about to strike. +The stroke fell first on Peter, Rolla, Ned, and Batteau Bennett. The +last, although but a boy of eighteen, was one of the most active of the +younger leaders of the plot. Vesey was not captured until the fourth day +afterward. So secret and profound had been his methods of operations in +the underground world, that the early reports of his connection with the +conspiracy, were generally discredited among the whites. Jesse Blackwood +was taken the next day, and four days later, on June 27th, Monday Gell +was arrested. Gullah Jack eluded the search of the police until July +5th, when he too was struck by the huge slave asp. + +In all, there were one hundred and thirty-one blacks arrested, +sixty-seven convicted, thirty-five executed, and thirty-seven banished +beyond the limits of the United States. Five of these last were of the +class of suspects, whom it was thought best to get rid of. Of the whole +number of convictions, not one belonged to the bands of either Vesey, or +Peter, or Rolla, or Ned, and but few to that of Gullah Jack's. Absolutely +true did these five leaders prove to their vow of secrecy, and so died +without betraying a single associate. This alas! cannot be said of +Monday Gell, who brave and loyal as he was throughout the period of his +arrest and trial, yet after sentence of death had been passed upon him, +and under the influence of a terror-stricken companion, succumbed to +temptation, and for the sake of life, consented to betray his followers. +Denmark, Peter, Rolla, Ned, Batteau, and Jesse, were hanged together, +July 2, 1822. Ten days later Gullah Jack suffered death on the gallows +also. Upon an enormous gallows, erected on the lines near Charleston, +twenty-two of the black martyrs to freedom were executed on the 22nd day +of the same ill-starred month. + +A curious circumstance connected with this plot was the high regard in +which the insurgents were held by the whites. But instead of my own, I +prefer to insert in this place the remarks of the slave judges on this +head. In their story of the plot they observed: "The character and +condition of most of the insurgents were such as rendered them objects +the least liable to suspicion. It is a melancholy truth, that the general +good conduct of all the leaders, except Gullah Jack, had secured to them +not only the unlimited confidence of their owners, but they had been +indulged in every comfort and allowed every privilege compatible with +their situation in the community; and although Gullah Jack was not +remarkable for the correctness of his deportment, he by no means +sustained a bad character. But not only were the leaders of good +character and much indulged by their owners, but this was generally the +case with all who were convicted, many of them possessed the highest +confidence of their owners, and not one of bad character." + +Comment on this significant fact is unnecessary. It contains a lesson +and a warning which a fool need not err in reading and understanding. +Oppression is a powder magazine exposed always to the danger of +explosion from spontaneous combustion. _Verbum sat sapienti._ + +Another curious circumstance connected with this history, was the trial +and conviction of four white men, on indictments for attempting to +incite the slaves to insurrection. They were each sentenced to fine and +imprisonment, the fines ranging from $100 to $1,000, and the terms of +imprisonment, from three to twelve months. + +And now for the concluding act of this tragedy, for a final glance at +four of its black heroes and martyrs as they appeared to the slave +judges who tried them, and to whose hostile pen we are indebted for this +last impressive picture of their courage, their fortitude and their +greatness of soul. Here it is: "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. He at first questioned them in the +dictatorial, despotic manner, in which he was probably accustomed to +address them; but this not producing the desired effect, he questioned +them with affected surprise and concern for bearing false testimony +against him; still failing in his purpose, he then examined them +strictly as to dates, but could not make them contradict themselves. The +evidence being closed, he addressed the court at considerable length * * +* When he received his sentence the tears trickled down his cheeks." + +I cannot, of course, speak positively respecting the exact nature of +the thought or feeling which lay back of those sad tears. But of this I +am confident that they were not produced by any weak or momentary fear +of death, and I am equally sure that they were not caused by remorse for +the part which he had taken, as chief of a plot to give freedom to his +race. Perhaps they were wrung from him by the Judas-like ingratitude and +treachery, which had brought his well-laid scheme to ruin. He was about +to die, and it was Wrong not Right which with streaming eyes he saw +triumphant. Perhaps, in that solemn moment, he remembered the time, +years before, when he might have sailed for Africa, and there have +helped to build, in freedom and security, an asylum for himself and +people, where all of the glad dreams of his strenuous and stormy life +might have been realized, and also how he had put behind him the +temptation, "because" as he expressed it, "he wanted to stay and see +what he could do for his fellow creatures in bondage." At the thought of +it all, the triumph of slavery, the treachery of black men, the +immedicable grief which arises from wasted labors and balked purposes, +and widespreading failures, is it surprising that in that supreme moment +hot tears gushed from the eyes of that stricken but lion-hearted man? + +But to return to the last picture of the martyrs before their judges: +"Rolla when arraigned affected not to understand the charge against him, +and when it was at his request further explained to him, assumed with +wonderful adroitness, astonishment, and surprise. He was remarkable +throughout his trial, for great presence of composure of mind. When he +was informed he was convicted and was advised to prepare for death, +though he had previously (but after his trial) confessed his guilt, he +appeared perfectly confounded, but exhibited no signs of fear. In Ned's +behavior there was nothing remarkable, but his countenance was stern and +immovable, even whilst he was receiving the sentence of death; from his +looks it was impossible to discover or conjecture what were his +feelings. Not so with Peter, for in his countenance were strongly marked +disappointed ambition, revenge, indignation, and an anxiety to know how +far the discoveries had extended, and the same emotions were exhibited +in his conduct. He did not appear to fear personal consequences, 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 sentence, +and his only words were on retiring, 'I suppose you'll let me see my +wife and family before I die,' and that not in a supplicating tone. When +he was asked a day or two after, if it was possible he could wish to see +his master and family murdered who had treated him so kindly, he only +replied to the question by a smile." + +The unquailing courage, the stern fidelity to engagements, and the +spirit of devotion and self-sacrifice which characterized so signally +the leaders of this slave plot, culminated, it seems to me, in the +unbending will and grandeur of soul of Peter Poyas, during those last, +tragic days, in Charleston. I doubt if in six thousand years the world +has produced a finer example of fortitude and greatness of mind in +presence of death, than did this Negro slave exhibit in the black hole +of the Charleston workhouse, when conversing with his Chief and Rolla +and Ned Bennett, touching their approaching death, and the safety of +their faithful and forlorn followers, he uttered thus intrepid +injunction: "Do not open your lips! Die silent as you shall see me do." +Such words, considering the circumstances under which they were spoken, +were worthy of a son of Sparta or of Rome, when Sparta and Rome were at +their highest levels as breeders of iron men. + +It is verily no light thing for the Negroes of the United States to have +produced such a man, such a hero and martyr. It is certainly no light +heritage, the knowledge, that his brave blood flows in their veins. For +history does not record, that any other of its long and shining line of +heroes and martyrs, ever met death, anywhere on this globe, in a holier +cause or a sublimer mood, than died this Spartan-like slave, more than +three quarters of a century ago. + +May some future Rembrandt have the courage, as the genius, to paint that +tragic and imposing scene, with its deep shadows and high lights as I +see it now, the dark and hideous dungeon, the sombre figures and grim +faces of the four glorious black martyrs, with Peter in the midst, +speaking his deathless words: "Do not open your lips! Die silent as you +shall see me do." + + "Right forever on the scaffold, + Wrong forever on the Throne, + Yet that scaffold sways the future, + And, behind the dim unknown, + Standeth God within the shadow, + Keeping watch above His own." + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "th" corrected to "the" (page 5) + "Nego" corrected to "Negro" (page 11) + "buiding" corrected to "building" (page 16) + "New" corrected to "Ned" (page 19) + "behavoir" corrected to "behavior" (page 23) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Right on the Scaffold, or The Martyrs +of 1822, by Archibald H. 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