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490 DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. July, 1861 [[line]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] own contributions they had secured enough to strike the first blow--a few hundred pikes and daggers, together with swords and guns for the leaders. But they had carefully marked every place in the city where weapons were to be obtained. On King Street Road, beyond the municipal limits, in a common wooden shop, were left unguarded the arms of the Neck company of militia, to the number of several hundred stand; and these were to be secured by Bacchus Hammett, whose master kept the establishment. In Mr. Duquercron's shop there were deposited for sale as many more weapons; and they had noted Mr. Schirer's shop in Queen Street, and other gunsmiths' establishments. Finally, the State arsenal in Meeting Street, a building with no defences except ordinary wooden doors, was to be seized early in the outbreak. Provided, therefore, that the first moves proved successful, all the rest appeared sure. Very little seems to have been said among the conspirators in regard to any plans of riot or debauchery, subsequent to the capture of the city. Either their imaginations did not dwell on them, or the witnesses did not dare to give testimony, or the authorities to print it. Death was to be dealt out, comprehensive and terrible; but nothing more is mentioned. One prisoner, Rolla, is reported in the evidence to have dropped hints in regard to the destiny of the women; and there was a rumor in the newspapers of the time, that he, or some other of Gov. Bennett's slaves, was to have taken the Governor's daughter, a young girl of sixteen, for his wife, in the event of success; but this is all. On the other hand, Denmark Vesey was known to be for a war of immediate and total extermination; and when some of the company opposed killing 'the ministers and the women and children,' Vesey read from the Scriptures that all should be cut off, and said that 'it was for their safety not to leave one white skin alive, for this was the plan they pursued at St. Domingo.' And all this was not a mere dream of one lonely enthusiast, but a measure which had been maturing for four full years among several confederates, and had been under discussion for five months among multitudes of initiated 'candidates.' As usual with slave-insurrections, the best men and those most trusted were deepest in the plot. Rolla was the only prominent conspirator who was not an active Church member. 'Most of the ringleaders,' says a Charleston letter-writer of that day, 'were the rulers or class leaders in what is called the African Society, and were considered faithful, honest fellows. Indeed, many of the owners could not be convinced, till the fellows confessed themselves, that they were concerned, and that the first object of all was to kill their masters.' And the first official report declares that it would not be difficult to assign a motive for the insurrectionists, 'if it had not been distinctly proved, that, with scarcely an exception, they had no individual hardship to complain of, and were among the most humanely treated negroes in the city.--The facilities for combining and confederating in such a scheme were amply afforded by the extreme indulgence and kindness which characterizes the domestic treatment of the slaves. Many slave-owners among us, not satisfied with ministering to the wants of their domestics by all the comforts of abundant food and excellent clothing, with a misguided benevolence have not only permitted their instruction, but lent to such efforts their approbation and applause.' 'I sympathize most sincerely,' says the anonymous author of a pamphlet of the period, 'with the very respectable and pious clergyman whose heart must still bleed at the recollection that his confidential class-leader, but a week or two before his just conviction, had received the communion of the Lord's Supper from his hand. This wretch had been brought up in the pastor's family, and was treated with the same Christian attention as was shown to their own children.' 'To us who are accustomed to the base and proverbial ingratitude of these people this ill return o kindness and [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] confidence is not surprising; but they who are ignorant of their real character will read and wonder.' One demonstration of this 'Christian attention' had lately been the closing of the African Church--of which, as has been stated, most of the leading revolutionists were members--on the ground that it tended to spread the dangerous infection of the alphabet. On January 15th, 1821, the City Marshal, John L. Lafar, had notified 'ministers of the gospel and others who keep night and Sunday schools for slaves, that the education of such persons is forbidden by law, and that the city government feel imperiously bound to enforce the penalty.' So that there were some special, as well as general grounds for disaffection among these ungrateful favorites of Fortune, the slaves. Then there were fancied dangers. An absurd report had somehow arisen--since you cannot keep men ignorant without making them unreasonable also--that on the ensuing Fourth of July the whites were to create a false alarm, and that every black man coming out was to be killed, 'in order to thin them;' this being done to prevent their joining an imaginary army supposed to be on its way from Hayti. Others were let to suppose that Congress had ended the Missouri Compromise discussion by making them all free, and that the law would protect their liberty, if they could only secure it. Others again were threatened with the vengeance of the conspirators, unless they also joined; on the night of attack, it was said, the initiated would have a countersign, and all who did not know it would share the fate of the whites.--Add to this the reading of Congressional speeches, and of the copious magazine of revolution to be found in the Bible--and it was no wonder, if they for the first time were roused, under the energetic leadership of Vesey, to a full consciousness of their own condition. 'Not only were the leaders of good character and very much indulged by their owners, but this was very generally the case with all who were convicted--many of them possessing the highest confidence of their owners,and not one of bad character.' In one case it was proved that Vesey had forbidden his followers to trust a certain man, because he had once been intoxicated. In another case it was shown that a slave named George had made every effort to obtain their confidence, but was constantly excluded from their meetings as a talkative fellow who could not be trusted--a policy which his levity of manner, when examined in court, fully justified. They took no women into counsel--not from any distrust apparently, but in order that their children might not be left uncared for, in case of defeat and destruction. House-servants were rarely trusted, or only when they had been carefully sounded by the chief leaders. Peter Poyas, in commissioning an agent to enlist men, give him excellent cautions:--'Don't mention it to those waiting-men who receive presents of old coats, etc., from their masters, or they'll betray us; I will speak to them.' When he did speak, if he did not convince them, he at last frightened them; but the chief reliance was on the slaves hired out and therefore more uncontrolled--and also upon the country negroes. The same far-sighted policy directed the conspirators to disarm suspicion by peculiarly obedient and orderly conduct. And it shows the precaution with which the thing was carried on, that, although Peter Poyas was proved to have had a list of some six hundred persons, yet not one of his particular company was ever brought to trial. As each leader kept to himself the names of his proselytes, and as Monday Gell was the only one of these who turned traitor, any opinion as to the numbers actually engaged must appear altogether conjectural. One witness said nine thousand; another, six thousand six hundred. These statements were probably extravagant, though not more so than Gov. Bennett's assertion, on the other side, that 'all who were actually concerned had been brought to justice'--unless by this phrase he designates only [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] the ringleaders. The avowed aim of the Governor's letter, indeed, is to smooth the thing over, for the credit and safety of the city;--and its evasive tone contrasts strongly with the more frank and thorough statements of the Judges, made after the thing could no longer be hushed up. These best authorities explicitly acknowledge that they had failed to detect more than a small majority of those concerned in the project, and seem to admit, that, if it had once been brought to a head, the slaves generally would have joined in. 'We cannot venture to say,' says the Intendant's pamphlet, 'to how many the knowledge of the intended effort was communicated, who, without signifying their assent, or attending any of the meetings, were yet prepared to profit by events. That there are many who would not have permitted the enterprize to have failed at a critical moment, for the want of their co-operation, we have the best reason for believing.' So believed the community at large; and the panic was in proportion, when the whole danger was finally made public. 'The scenes I witnessed,' says one who has since narrated the circumstances, 'and the declaration of the impending danger that met us at all times and on all occasions, forced the conviction that never were an entire people more thoroughly alarmed than were the people of Charleston at that time. . . . During the excitement and the trial of the supposed conspirators, rumor proclaimed all, and doubtless more than all, the horrors of the plot. The city was to be fired in every quarter, the arsenal in the immediate vicinity was to be broken open and the arms distributed to the insurgents, and an universal massacre of the white inhabitants to take place. Nor did there seem to be any doubt in the mind of the people that such would actually have been the result, had not the plot fortunately been detected before the time appointed for the outbreak. It was believed, as a matter of course, that every black in the city would join in the insurrection, and that, if the original design had been attempted, and the city taken by surprise, the negroes would have achieved a complete and easy victory. Nor does it seem at all impossible that such might have been or yet may be the case, if any well arranged an resolute rising should take place.' Indeed, this universal admission that all the slaves were ready to take part in any desperate enterprize, was one of the most startling aspects of the affair. The authorities say that the two principal State's evidence declared that 'they never spoke to any person of color on the subject, or knew of any one who had been spoken to by the other leaders, who had withheld his assent.' And the conspirators seem to have been perfectly satisfied that all the remaining slaves would enter their ranks upon the slightest success. 'Let us assemble a sufficient number to commence the work with spirit, and we'll not want men;--they'll fall in behind us fast enough.' And as an illustration of this readiness, the official report mentions a slave who had belonged to one master for sixteen years sustaining a high character for fidelity and affection, who had twice traveled with him through the Northern States, resisting every solicitation to escape, and who yet was very deeply concerned in the insurrection, though knowing it to involve the probable destruction of the whole family with whom he lived. One singular circumstance followed the first rumors of the plot. Several white men, said to be of low and unprincipled character, at once began to make interest with the supposed leaders among the slaves, either from genuine sympathy, or with the intention of betraying them for money, or of profiting by the insurrection, should it succeed. Four of these were brought to trial; but the official report expresses the opinion that many more might have been discovered but for the inadmissability of salve-testimony against whites. Indeed, the evidence against even these four was insufficient for a capital conviction, although one was overheard, through stratagem, by the Intendant himself, and arrested [[/column 3]]
