Denmark Vesey Biography

Denmark Vesey known as “Telemaque” was born in St. Thomas possibly around 1767 and was brought to the United States from the Caribbean. At the age of 14 he was sold to a slave owner named Captain Joseph Vesey, and he grew up going on many voyages with his master. As a sea captain owner, young Telemaque at the time would help Captain Vesey by being his personal servant. Denmark Vesey lived a comfortable life as a slave; he didn’t work on the plantation fields, and he had a certain amount of freedom where he could go wherever he needed to go; even though he was still a slave. After Captain Vesey had settled in Charleston as ship handler, Demark Vesey married an enslaved woman by the name of Beck, and he gave her three children who were born …show more content…
He would preach around the area to slaves telling them how they would gain their freedom. Vesey would urge the congregation to break free from slavery by quoting bible verses to give them encouragement. He held house meetings to collect weapons for the revolt that he was planning to kill whites, burn and destroy the city to free all slaves. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was closed down years later by city authorities in June 1818. This made Vesey and his followers respond with anger, and it gave them a desire to fight slavery. Not being able to buy his wife and children freedom made him angry and he was inspired by the slaves’ revolt in Haiti that led him to begin plotting a revolt in Charleston, South Carolina. Joining to help Vesey in his plot was four of his closest friends by the names of Monday Gell, Peter Poyas, Rolla Bennett and “Gullah” Jack Pritchard, and his wife Beck. In 1822, Vesey planned the revolt to be in the summer when the largest amount of white people would be out of Charleston on vacation. He carefully chooses dependable people; most of those were artisan slaves of high intelligence that would be able to participate in the revolt. Denmark originally planned to set the attack date