- ment. Punishment of fine and imprisonment was laid
upon any found out of their houses after nine o'clock at night.
An extra tax was placed upon every member of a free colored family. While all these odious edicts were silently borne by the free colored people of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1822, there was a suppressed feeling of indignation, mortification, and discontent, that was only appreciated by a few. Among the most dissatisfied of the free blacks was Denmark Vesey, a man who had purchased his freedom in the year 1800, and since that time had earned his living by his trade, being a carpenter and joiner.
In person, Vesey was tall and of spare make; in color, a dark mulatto; high forehead; eyes, dark brown; nose, long and with a Roman cast. His education was superior to that of his associates, and he had read much, especially of the condition of his own race, and felt deeply for them in their degraded condition.
Vesey was a native of the West Indies. Having been employed on shipboard by his master, Captain Vesey, Denmark had seen a great deal of the world, and had acquired a large fund of information, and was regarded as a leading man among the blacks. He had studied the Scriptures, and never lost an opportunity of showing that they were opposed to chattel-slavery. He spoke freely with the slaves upon the subject, and often with the whites, where he found he could do so without risk to his own liberty.
After resolving to incite the slaves to rebellion, he began taking into his confidence such persons as he could trust, and instructing them to gain adherents
