Echoes of the Haitian Revolution: Denmark Vesey & the Charleston Uprising part 2

The Poor Prole’s Almanac · Jun 9, 2023 · 35m

Denmark Vesey, a carpenter and formerly enslaved person, allegedly planned an enslaved insurrection to coincide with Bastille Day in Charleston, South Carolina in 1822. Vesey modeled his rebellion after the successful 1791 slave revolution in Haiti. His plans called for his followers to execute the white enslavers, liberate the city of Charleston, and then sail to Haiti before the white power structure could retaliate.

Vesey and several of his co-conspirators worshiped at the African Church, the AME congregation which became Mother Emanuel after the Civil War. Along with white abolitionists…