Statue of Denmark Vesey in Hampton Park in Charleston, South Carolina. 2022. https://holycitysinner.com/imported/city-charleston-denmark-vesey-statue-restored-returned-hampton-park-vandalized/
Denmark Vesey was sold to Captain Joseph Vesey in St. Thomas as a teenager. After several years, he brought Denmark home with him to Charleston, South Carolina. Vesey won a street lottery in 1799 that allowed him to purchase his freedom. He worked as a carpenter and joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he taught classes. Vesey prospered in Charleston, but was reminded of his position in American society when he tried to purchase the freedom of his wife and children, and was refused. This likely played into Vesey’s plan to organize a slave insurrection to free all the enslaved people of Charleston.
News of the plot was leaked to the authorities and on June 21, 1822, 131 men were arrested on suspicion of participating in the conspiracy. 35, along with Vesey were hanged. South Carolina enacted more laws to suppress the movement of Black people, including the Negro Seaman Acts, which required all Black sailors aboard ships docking in Charleston to be jailed until their ship was ready to leave.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church was burned to the ground. Black churches were then banned in South Carolina. None were openly built until after the end of the Civil War. Vesey was used as a figure of fear in the South, and one of liberation among abolitionists. However, historians still argue how real the conspiracy for a city-wide revolt was, and how much of it was embellished by the court in order to justify more draconian restrictions on enslaved and free Black people in South Carolina.
Sources:
Denmark Vesey- Teaching History
This Far by Faith- PBS
Denmark Vesey- National Park Service