Social and Behavioral Sciences E-Campus

H 101 - Lab Exercise: The Denmark Vesey Insurrection (1822)

Denmark Vesey House

Denmark Vesey House at 56 Bull Street, Charleston, S.C.

Narrative:

Telemaque ('Denmark') Vesey, lived in Charleston, South Carolina and was a carpenter by trade. He is credited with organizing a massive conspiracy among the African-American peoples of Charleston designed to seize the city and liberate those men and women who were held in bondage. The original plan was to launch an attack on the second Monday in July. When the plan was revealed to authorities on May 30, Vesey changed the date for attack to midnight of June 16. The Court began the trials of a number of African-Americans arrested and charged with attempting to raise an Insurrection amongst the Blacks against the Whites, on June 19, 1822. Of the one hundred thirty-one men charged, sixty-seven were convicted, thirty-seven of whom (including Vesey) were executed.

Description:

This exercise provides the student with an opportunity to review primary source materials from the Trial Record of the Vesey Insurrection and the rules of procedure established for the prosecution of those persons accused. Following a review of the trial record, the student is asked to decide on the guilt or innocence of an individual accused and then discover the original outcome.

Objectives:

This exercise is designed to help the student learn how to assess historical materials - their relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability, and their importance - and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. [IMAGE]

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  1. The (South Carolina) Negro Law of 1740 - Excerpts.
  2. Rules of Procedure
  3. Samuel Gifford and Robert Hadden - Two adolescent boys.
  4. Prince Graham - a free black man.
  5. Polydore - a Negro man.
  6. Tom - A Negro man.

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Home Page

Photo: Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture,
  http://www.cofc.edu/library/avery/avery.html
Off-Campus Internet Associates
[IMAGE]Comments to Joan A. Andersen: joanaa@umd5.umd.edu
Content copyright © 1996 Joan A. Andersen;
Revised: 6 November 1999
URL: http://www.erols.com/bcccsbs/vesey.htm