Assignment 2: Comparing Lives
For this assignment, compare the lives of William Byrd and Olaudah Equiano. These are two very different experiences of early American life: one of relative luxury and ease and the other of bondage and slavery. How are the differences in these lives made manifest? How do these deep differences get articulated in how each writer views the world, his role in it, and his sense of himself as a person? Be sure to use material and examples from your readings and research to support your conclusions.
As you reflect on this comparison, respond to the following questions:
- How are such radical differences in the conditions of life justified? In other words, how is such dramatic inequality accepted?
- Are such inequalities ever justified? When? Why or why not?
- Though not as dramatic as the inequality between slave and master, there are many ways that inequality remains in American life today. Where are such inequalities? Are they justified? Why or why not?
Compile your responses in a 2–3-page paper in Microsoft Word (not counting the title and reference pages). Include an APA formatted title page and reference page.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Around the beginning of the nineteenth century, the English textile industry grew at an incredible pace. Work was reorganized so that a relatively small number of individuals controlled the buying of cotton and its spinning, weaving, and sale as cloth. Some of the new technologies were simple, others, complex, involving large factories. But the new industry was characterized by a heightened specialization of labor, the ability of some men to purchase the time of others as cheaply as possible, and the need of masses of people to sell their labor in order to make a living. The growth of the textile industry signaled the beginnings of a general reorganization of production under capitalism.
The freedom of individuals to buy and sell labor—of owners to hire and fire whomever they pleased and of workers to work for whomever they chose—was central to the system. But most of the individuals who produced the raw cotton that eventually became cloth were slaves, people without such freedom. First, long-staple cotton, which grew only in the coastal areas of the Carolinas and Georgia, fed the textile business. Short-staple cotton was hardy and could grow in varied climates, but the seeds stuck in the cotton bolls, making it unfit for spinning. Then, in 1793, an American inventor, Eli Whitney, developed his famous cotton gin, which easily separated fiber from seed. Now cloth could be produced from any kind of cotton.
Soon the cotton culture spread inland from the southern coast, overrunning Alabama and Mississippi by the 1830s, Texas and Louisiana slightly later. Textile mills opened in America and England, and despite ups and downs, the overall demand for cotton products in world markets seemed unlimited. The new industry spurred the expansion of other businesses, including banking, shipping, and insurance, as well as retailing, importing, and exporting. Thus, cotton was one of the most important ingredients in the development of modern capitalism, and where cotton spread, so did slavery. Here was an irony: The same product that had nurtured a free-labor capitalistic economy also was essential to the growth and extension of slavery, an ancient system antithetical to the free-labor marketplace. If cotton cloth production was the great engine of modern capitalism, enslaved men and women drove that engine. Freedom for some, then, depended on the bondage of others.
Before the great boom in cotton demand, the institution of slavery had been on the defensive. Especially in England, evangelical Christians, reformers, and advocates of free labor were beginning to push for outlawing the slave trade with Africa and, in some extreme cases, for the manumission of slaves in the Americas. The new American Constitution allowed Congress to prohibit the slave trade after 1808, and by 1820, the northern states had either outlawed servitude or were in the process of doing so. In the South, however, slavery had always been stronger, and if many whites justified it as a necessary evil, they nevertheless were not about to divest themselves of their most important form of productive property. Once the demand for short-staple cotton developed, slavery in the South became linked with opening up new western lands and providing economic opportunity for ambitious white men. By the early nineteenth century, bondage and a distinct southern way of life were joined, and before long, whites spoke of the enslavement of blacks as a positive good.
It was not a positive good for the slaves. When the importation of new Africans slowed early in the century, black culture began to change. Many African practices, customs, and beliefs remained, but large parts of the culture of whites became part of black ways. English—although in the form of a patois filled with African words and grammatical constructions—became the dominant language of African Americans. Many slaves were converted to Christianity, though in their own religious services, they incorporated African ideas about God and the spiritual world. Memories of an African homeland never disappeared, but increasingly these remembrances were secondhand, passed through the generations. Blacks forged a distinctive hybrid culture, including their own music, family structure, worship, humor, and social hierarchy.
African Americans needed all of their resources to survive a cruel system. At its worst, slavery meant the breakup of families on an owner’s whim, whippings to enforce discipline, and even death for insubordination. Perhaps the daily grind was worse than the atrocities, for African Americans lived with being stigmatized as an inferior race, having no control over their work or the products of their labor, and having little hope that their lives would get better. Most masters provided roughly enough to eat, but the food was too often an unchanging regimen of corn meal, fat pork, molasses, and, for the lucky ones, the produce of their own small gardens. Sometimes work clothes barely kept them covered through the seasons, and housing often consisted of one-room dirt-floor slave cabins, places impossible to keep dry and disease-free. Slaves generally worked from sunrise to sunset, planting, hoeing, and harvesting, mostly in the brutal southern summers. Women labored alongside men except just before and after childbirth; the very elderly took care of the very young, though both groups were given their own tasks.
There was, of course, variation within slavery. Staple crops like rice, indigo, and sugarcane dictated rhythms of production different from those of cotton; slaves on large plantations had the most distance from the whites, meaning less personal kindness if there was any to be had, but also more independence. A minority of blacks worked as house servants or as skilled laborers, jobs with more diversity than field work, but with greater scrutiny by whites. Some sadistic masters worked their slaves nearly to death, but these were relatively rare. In most cases, a battle of wits was waged constantly, African Americans doing their best to preserve a bit of autonomy, free time, or pleasure, masters trying to get as much labor out of their slaves as possible.
It was a common sight in the Old South: slaves chained to each other enroute to being sold away from family and friends. (© Bettmann/Corbis)
Most African Americans never openly rebelled against the system. Slave codes did not allow blacks to have weapons, use drums (important signaling devices in Africa), or congregate in large numbers. Whites were well armed, outnumbered blacks in most states, and had organized patrols to discourage insubordination. While slaves certainly would have preferred freedom to bondage, the risks of death or of being sold away from loved ones were overwhelming. If day-to-day life was harsh, it was usually stable enough to allow for the shared joys of conversation, play, and worship with kin and neighbors—humble pleasures, but not worth risking. Opposition to the slave system therefore took small and underground forms: resting as the overseer looked away, telling jokes about particular whites, stealing a hog for meat, running off for a few hours or days to get a bit of freedom, or in more extreme cases, secretly destroying tools and other white property, burning down a barn, and even poisoning individual masters.
Occasionally, too, there were organized rebellions. None of those in the United States were ever as massive or successful as those in Latin America. Both blacks and whites spoke in hushed tones of the revolution in Saint Domingue (Haiti) during the 1790s. There, Toussaint L’Ouverture led a long and bloody rebellion that resulted in the overthrow of French rule and freedom for the slaves. Southern states banned refugees from Saint Domingue, but the revolts in Latin America had become legendary events for many blacks. The largest attempt at rebellion in the United States was the conspiracy of 1800, in which preacher and blacksmith Gabriel Prosser organized hundreds of slaves in a plan to seize Richmond, Virginia, set fire to the city, and capture the governor. Heavy rain prevented the planned attack, after which the conspiracy was betrayed. Nat Turner, literate and charismatic, led the bloodiest rebellion on these shores. On August 22, 1831, this preacher and religious mystic led dozens of others on an attack through Southampton County, Virginia; sixty whites died before the rebellion was crushed, and as many as two hundred blacks were executed in the aftermath.
THE DOCUMENTS
The documents in this chapter come from the 1822 trial of Denmark Vesey, and from David Walker’s 1829 Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World. Like Gabriel Prosser, Vesey was a free black, a man of unusual learning, skill, and independence. As in the Richmond plot of 1800, Vesey’s rebellion was betrayed before it could begin, and it is therefore very difficult to know just how large it might have been. His lieutenants were able and persuasive men, though it is hard to credit claims that thousands had been enlisted for the rebellion. Particularly interesting, however, were the sorts of appeals made by the conspirators. One leader, Gullah Jack, offered magical invulnerability, and his legendary abilities as a conjurer embodied the slaves’ African heritage. Vesey pitched his appeals on several levels: The Bible, he taught, sanctioned rebellion against bondage; the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were antithetical to slavery; and the Caribbean revolts offered precedents for rebellion. Walker, too, justified black rebellion with the Bible and the Declaration of Independence. He also appealed to a glorious African past (but rejected colonization of American slaves back to Africa) and declared that the United States rightfully belonged to blacks as well as whites.
Introduction to Document 1
If open rebellions were not common in North America, they nonetheless revealed the desperation some slaves felt and the fears of whites that blacks longed to be free. When the Vesey conspiracy was over, thirty-five slaves were hanged and thirty-one banished from the United States. The following are excerpts from the published report of the June 1822 trial of Vesey and his lieutenants on the charge of inciting an insurrection. It was originally entitled An Official Report of the Trials of Sundry Negroes, Charged with an Attempt to Raise an Insurrection (Charleston, South Carolina, 1822). It was written by the two presiding magistrates, Lionel H. Kennedy and Thomas Parker, both local attorneys. While not a verbatim transcript of the proceedings, it summarized much of the case against the conspirators.
We must read this testimony carefully, always questioning the witnesses’ motives, for both blacks and whites saw incidents through a veil of fear. Masters wanted to make an example of slaves, while slaves sought to protect each other and themselves. What is unmistakably clear, however, is that several blacks had thought long and hard about their plan, had worked out a sophisticated ideology of freedom, and had been quite persuasive in gaining converts, despite the desperate odds against them. As you read these selections, try to imagine how great the risks were that the slaves took. What sustained them as they gambled with their lives? And what kept other slaves from joining them?
DOCUMENT 1 The Trials
The Court organized for the trial of sundry Negroes apprehended and charged with attempting to raise an Insurrection amongst the Blacks against the Whites, and of such others as might be brought before them on the same charge, met on Wednesday, the 19th June, 1822. . . .
THE TRIAL OF ROLLA, a Negro man, the slave of His Excellency, Governor Bennett—Jacob Axson, Esq., attending as counsel for his owner.
Evidence
Witness no. 1 A Negro man testified as follows: I know Rolla, belonging to Mr. Thomas Bennett, we are intimate friends; all that I know of the intended Insurrection I got from him. About three months ago he asked me to join with him in slaying the whites, I asked him to give me time to consider it; a week after he put the same question to me, and at the end of another week he again came to me on the same subject. I told him “take care, God says we must not kill”; you are a coward he said and laughed at me. He said he would tell me how it was to be done. There are said he, white men who have come from off, and who say that Santo Domingo and Africa will assist us to get our liberty if we will only make the motion first. I advised him to let it alone, and told him I would oppose them if they came to kill my owner, when he again laughed at me as a coward. He summoned me to go to their meetings where said he you will hear what is going on and be better informed; I told him yes, I would go. Friday night about three weeks ago he appointed to take me with him to their meeting; at that night he came to me and again summoned me to go to the meeting, I went away from him, I went out of his way. The next day he came to me and said the meeting had been expecting me and I must send my name to be put down as one of the band—this thing has been going on for four months. He told me that at the meeting it was said that some white men said Congress had set us free, and that our white people here would not let us be so, and that Santo Domingo and Africa would come over and cut up the white people if we only made the motion here first—that last Saturday night (the 15th June) might be the last he had to live, as they were determined to break open the thing on Sunday night (the 16th June). I told him it could not be done, it would not succeed, that our parents for generations back had been slaves, and we had better be contented. . . . I asked Rolla what was to be done with the women and children? he said, “when we have done with the fellows, we know what to do with the wenches.” He said there are a great many involved in it in the country; that Mungo from James’ Island was to come over to Charleston with 4,000 men, land on South Bay, march up and seize the Arsenal by the Guard House and kill all the City Guard; that another body was to seize upon the Powder Magazine, and another body to take the United States’ Arsenal on the Neck, then march to town and destroy the inhabitants, who could only escape by jumping into the river. My Army he said will first fix my old buck and then the Intendant. I asked him if he could bind his master or kill him; he laughed at me again; I then told him I would have nothing to do with him. He said he was going to John’s Island to hasten down the country Negroes, as he feared they would not come. I felt that it was a bad thing to disclose what a bosom friend had confided to me, and that it was wicked to betray him, and I suffered a great deal before I could bring myself to give information, but when I thought on the other hand that by doing so I would save so many lives and prevent the horrible acts in contemplation, ’twas overbalanced, and my duty was to inform. I refused to go to the meetings as Rolla wished, as I feared if I opposed them there, they might make away with me to prevent me from betraying them. . . . I know Denmark Vesey—I was one day on horseback going to market when I met him on foot; he asked me if I was satisfied in my present situation; if I remembered the fable of Hercules and the Waggoner whose wagon was stalled, and he began to pray, and Hercules said, you fool put your shoulder to the wheel, whip up the horses and your waggon will be pulled out; that if we did not put our hand to the work and deliver ourselves, we should never come out of slavery; that Congress had made us free. . . .
Rolla’s threats are that if any black person is found out giving information or evidence against them, they would be watched for day and night and be certainly killed. Even now the friends of those in prison are trying about the streets to find out who has given information—If my name was known I would certainly be killed. . . .
The voluntary confession of Rolla to the Court, made after all the evidence had been heard, but before his conviction: I know Denmark Vesey. On one occasion he asked me what news, I told him none; he replied we are free but the white people here won’t let us be so, and the only way is to rise up and fight the whites. I went to his house one night to learn where the meetings were held. I never conversed on this subject with Batteau or Ned—Vesey told me he was the leader in this plot. I never conversed either with Peter or Mingo. Vesey induced me to join; when I went to Vesey’s house there was a meeting there, the room was full of people, but none of them white. That night at Vesey’s we determined to have arms made, and each man put in 12 1/2 cents towards that purpose. Though Vesey’s room was full I did not know one individual there. At this meeting Vesey said we were to take the Guard House and Magazine to get arms; that we ought to rise up and fight against the whites for our liberties; he was the first to rise up and speak, and he read to us from the Bible, how the Children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt from bondage. He said that the rising would take place, last Sunday night week, (the 16th June). . . .
The court unanimously found Rolla guilty. After sentence of death had been passed upon him, he made a confession in prison to the Rev. Dr. Hall, who furnished the Court with it in writing, and in the following words: “I was invited by Denmark Vesey to his house, where I found Ned Bennett, Peter Poyas, and others, some were strangers to me, they said they were from the country. Denmark told us, it was high time we had our liberty, and he could show us how we might obtain it. He said, we must unite together as the Santo Domingo people did, never to betray one another, and to die before we would tell upon one another. He also said he expected the Santo Domingo people would send some troops to help us. The best way, said he, for us to conquer the whites, is to set the town on fire in several places, at the Governor’s Mills, and near the Docks, and for every servant in the yards to be ready with axes, knives, and clubs, to kill every man as he came out when the bells began to ring. He then read in the Bible where God commanded, that all should be cut off, both men, women and children, and said, he believed, it was no sin for us to do so, for the Lord had commanded us to do it. But if I had read these Psalms, Doctor, which I have read, since I have been in this prison, they would never have got me to join them. At another meeting, some of the company were opposed to killing the Ministers, and the women and children, but Denmark said, it was not safe to keep one alive, but to destroy them totally, for you see, said he, the Lord has commanded it. When I heard this, master Hall, my heart pained me within, and I said to myself, I cannot kill my master and mistress, for they use me, more like a son, than a slave. I then concluded in my mind, that I would go into the country, on Saturday evening, before they were to commence on Sunday, that I might not see it. Some of the company asked, if they were to stay in Charleston; he said no, as soon as they could get the money from the banks, and the goods from the stores, they should hoist sail for Santo Domingo, for he expected some armed vessels would meet them to conduct and protect them.” . . .
THE TRIAL OF DENMARK VESEY, a free black man—Col. G. W. Cross attending as his counsel. . . .
Evidence
Witness no. 1, gave the following testimony: I know Denmark Vesey. I was one day on horseback going to market when I met him on foot; he asked me if I was satisfied in my present situation; if I remembered the fable of Hercules and the Waggoner whose waggon was stalled, and he began to pray, and Hercules said, you fool put your shoulder to the wheel, whip up the horses and your waggon will be pulled out; that if we did not put our hand to the work and deliver ourselves, we should never come out of slavery; that Congress had made us free. I know that he is intimately acquainted with Rolla—Rolla told me that there had been a sort of disagreement and confusion at their place of meeting, and that they meant to meet at Vesey’s. Vesey told me that a large army from Santo Domingo and Africa were coming to help us, and we must not stand with our hands in our pockets; he was bitter towards the whites.
Frank, Mrs. Ferguson’s slave gave the following evidence: I know Denmark Vesey and have been to his house. I have heard him say that the Negro’s situation was so bad he did not know how they could endure it, and was astonished they did not rise and fend for themselves, and he advised me to join and rise. He said he was going about to see different people, and mentioned the names of Ned Bennett and Peter Poyas as concerned with him—that he had spoken to Ned and Peter on this subject, and that they were to go about and tell the blacks that they were free, and must rise and fight for themselves—that they would take the Magazines and Guard Houses, and the city and be free—that he was going to send into the country to inform the people there too. He said he wanted me to join them—I said I could not answer—he said if I would not go into the country for him he could get others. He said himself, Ned Bennett, Peter Poyas, and Monday Gell were the principal men and himself the head man. He said they were the principal men to go about and inform the people and fix them,—that one party would land on South Bay, one about Wappoo, and about the farms—that the party which was to land on South Bay was to take the Guard House and get arms and then they would be able to go on—that the attack was to commence about twelve o’clock at night—that great numbers would come from all about, and it must succeed as so many were engaged in it—that they would kill all the whites. . . .
Benjamin Ford, a white lad, about 15 or 16 years of age, deposed as follows: Denmark Vesey frequently came into our shop which is near his house, and always complained of the hardships of the blacks. He said the laws were very rigid and strict and that the blacks had not their rights—that everyone had his time, and that his would come round too. His general conversation was about religion which he would apply to slavery, as for instance, he would speak of the creation of the world, in which he would say all men had equal rights, blacks as well as whites,—all his religious remarks were mingled with slavery. . . .
THE TRIAL OF MONDAY, a Negro man, the slave of Mr. John Gell,—Col. Wm. Rouse as his friend, and Jacob Axson, Esq., counsel for his owner attending.
Evidence
. . . [Monday’s confession.] The Court conceiving it all important to obtain from Monday all the information he possessed (believing him to possess more information on this subject than any man then alive), offered to recommend him to the Governor for a conditional pardon, or commutation of his punishment to banishment, if he would reveal all he knew in relation to this plot. He promised to do so, and made this second confession:
. . . The plan was to break open all the stores where arms were deposited and seize them, after they had procured the five hundred muskets above-mentioned. Vesey said he would appoint his leaders, and places of meeting, about one week before the 16th of June, but the meeting for this purpose was prevented by the capture of some of the principals before that period. Vesey determined to kill both women and children, but I opposed him and offended him in doing so. Peter and the rest agreed to the opinion of Vesey in the murder of all. Sometime before any discoveries or apprehensions were made, myself and Peirault wished to drop the business, but thought we had gone too far to retreat. I knew personally of no arms, except six pikes, shown to me by Gullah Jack, which were made by Tom Russel. I knew of no lists except the one which I kept, containing about forty names, and which I destroyed after the first interruption and alarm. It was said that William Paul had a list, but I never saw it. William Garner told me that he was to command the draymen, and that he had procured twelve or thirteen horses. . . .
. . . I do not recollect any person who refused when I applied to him. Some took time to consider, but they all finally agreed. Vesey was considered by the whole party, as a man of great capacity, and was also thought to possess a bloody disposition. He had, I am told, in the course of his life, seven wives, and had travelled through almost every part of the world, with his former master Captain Vesey, and spoke French with fluency. Morris Brown, Harry Drayton, and Charles Corr, and other influential leaders of the African Church, were never consulted on this subject, for fear they would betray us to the whites. Vesey had many years ago a pamphlet on the slave trade. Vesey said that his eldest stepson was engaged in this affair. . . .
THE TRIAL OF GULLAH JACK, a Negro man, belonging to Mr. Pritchard—his owner attending.
Evidence
Witness no. 10, testified as follows: Jack Pritchard also called on me about this business—he is sometimes called Gullah Jack, sometimes Cooter Jack. He gave me some dry food, consisting of parched corn and ground nuts, and said eat that and nothing else on the morning it breaks out, and when you join us as we pass put into your mouth this crab-claw and you can’t then be wounded, and said he, I give the same to the rest of my troops—if you drop the large crab-claw out of your mouth, then put in the small one. Said I, when do you break out and have you got arms—he said a plenty, but they are over Boundary Street, we can’t get at them now, but as soon as the Patrol was slack they could get them. . . . He said the white people were looking for him and he was afraid of being taken; that two men came to his master’s wharf and asked him if he knew Gullah Jack, and that he told them no—he said his charms would not protect him from the treachery of his own color. He went away and I have not seen him since. . . .
George, Mr. Vanderhorst’s slave, gave the testimony following: Gullah Jack is an enemy of the white people. I attended a meeting of several at his house, and he was the head man there. All present agreed to join & come against the whites. Jack was my leader—he is the head of the Gullah Company. I heard that among them they had charms. Jack said if any man betrayed them, they would injure him, and I was afraid to inform. The little man standing before me is Gullah Jack, who had large black whiskers, which he has cut since I saw him last. If I am accepted as a witness and my life spared, I must beg the Court to send me away from this place, as I consider my life in great danger from having given testimony. I have heard it said all about the streets, generally, I can’t name anyone in particular, that whoever is the white man’s friend, God help them; from which I understood they would be killed—I was afraid of Gullah Jack as a conjurer. . . .
The court unanimously found Gullah Jack guilty, and passed upon him the sentence of death.
Subsequently to his conviction, Harry Haig, who received sentence of death at the same time that he had, made the following confession:
. . . Until Jack was taken up and condemned to death, I felt as if I was bound up, and had not the power to speak one word about it. Jack charmed Julius and myself at last, and we then consented to join. Tom Russel the blacksmith and Jack are partners (in conjuring), Jack taught him to be a doctor. Tom talked to Jack about the fighting and agreed to join, and those two brought Julius and myself to agree to it. Jack said Tom was his second and “when you don’t see me, and see Tom, you see me.” Jack said Tom was making arms for the black people—Jack said he could not be killed, nor could a white man take him.” . . .
SENTENCE ON DENMARK VESEY, a free black man—Denmark Vesey: the Court, on mature consideration, have pronounced you guilty. You have enjoyed the advantage of able Counsel, and were also heard in your own defence, in which you endeavored, with great art and plausibility, to impress a belief of your innocence. After the most patient deliberation, however, the Court were not only satisfied of your guilt, but that you were the author and original instigator of this diabolical plot. Your professed design was to trample on all laws, human and divine; to riot in blood, outrage, rapine, and conflagration, and to introduce anarchy and confusion in their most horrid forms. Your life has become, therefore, a just and necessary sacrifice, at the shrine of indignant justice. It is difficult to imagine what infatuation could have prompted you to attempt an enterprise so wild and visionary. You were a free man; were comparatively wealthy; and enjoyed every comfort compatible with your situation. You had, therefore, much to risk, and little to gain. From your age and experience, you ought to have known, that success was impracticable.
A moment’s reflection must have convinced you, that the ruin of your race, would have been the probable result, and that years would have rolled away, before they could have recovered that confidence which they once enjoyed in this community. The only reparation in your power is a full disclosure of the truth. In addition to treason, you have committed the grossest impiety, in attempting to pervert the sacred words of God into a sanction for crimes of the blackest hue. It is evident, that you are totally insensible of the divine influence of that Gospel, “all whose paths are peace.” It was to reconcile us to our destinies on earth, and to enable us to discharge with fidelity, all the duties of life, that those holy precepts were imparted by Heaven to fallen man.
If you had searched them with sincerity, you would have discovered instructions, immediately applicable to the deluded victims of your artful wiles—“Servants (says Saint Paul) obey in all things your masters, according to the flesh, not with eye-service, as menpleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.” And again “Servants (says Saint Peter) be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.” On such texts comment is unnecessary.
Your “lamp of life” is nearly extinguished; your race is run, and you must shortly pass “from time to eternity.” Let me then conjure you to devote the remnant of your existence in solemn preparation for the awful doom that awaits you. Your situation is deplorable, but not destitute of spiritual consolation. To that Almighty Being alone, whose Holy Ordinances you have trampled in the dust, can you now look for mercy, and although “your sins be as scarlet,” the tears of sincere penitence may obtain forgiveness at the “Throne of Grace.” You cannot have forgotten the history of the malefactor on the Cross, who, like yourself, was the wretched and deluded victim of offended justice. His conscience was awakened in the pangs of dissolution, and yet there is reason to believe, that his spirit was received into the realms of bliss. May you imitate his example, and may your last moments prove like his!
SENTENCE ON JACK, a slave belonging to Paul Pritchard, commonly called Gullah Jack, and sometimes Cooter Jack—Gullah Jack: the Court after deliberately considering all the circumstances of your case, are perfectly satisfied of your guilt. In the prosecution of your wicked designs, you were not satisfied with resorting to natural and
ordinary means, but endeavored to enlist on your behalf, all the powers of darkness, and employed for that purpose, the most disgusting mummery and superstition. You represented yourself as invulnerable; that you could neither be taken nor destroyed, and that all who fought under your banners would be invincible. While such wretched expedients are calculated to excite the confidence, or to alarm the fears of the ignorant and credulous, they produce no other emotion in the minds of the intelligent and enlightened, but contempt and disgust. Your boasted charms have not preserved yourself, and of course could not protect others. Your altars and your Gods have sunk together in the dust. The airy spectres, conjured by you, have been chased away by the superior light of Truth, and you stand exposed, the miserable and deluded victim of offended justice. Your days are literally numbered. You will shortly be consigned to the cold and silent grave; and all the Powers of Darkness cannot rescue you from your approaching Fate! Let me then, conjure you to devote the remnant of your miserable existence, in fleeing from the wrath to come. This can only be done by a full disclosure of the truth. The Court are willing to afford you all the aid in their power, and to permit any Minister of the Gospel, whom you may select to have free access to you. To him you may unburden your guilty conscience. Neglect not the opportunity, for there is no device nor art in the grave, to which you must shortly be consigned.
Introduction to Documents 2 and 3
White Americans reacted to the Vesey conspiracy with powerful emotions. Southerners often censored themselves for fear that merely discussing the matter openly would spread the seeds of rebellion. But what emerges from the surviving documents is a sense of fear that sometimes bordered on hysteria around Charleston. Anna Hayes Johnson, daughter of U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Johnson (who questioned the extent of the conspiracy and was widely condemned in South Carolina for counseling moderation), wrote several confidential letters to her cousin in Raleigh, North Carolina that expressed deep sexual fears about the rebels and also questioned the need for so many executions. John Potter, on the other hand, had no reservations about the draconian punishments being meted out. Potter, a financier, wrote to fellow South Carolinian Langdon Cheves, director of the Bank of the United States. As you read Johnson’s and Potter’s letters, consider in what ways their reactions to the plot were similar or different.
DOCUMENT 2 “Gracious Heaven When I Think What I Have Escaped” : ANNA HAYES JOHNSON LETTERS TO HER COUSIN
Charleston, June 23, 1822
. . . My Dear Betsy. . . . ,
Gracious Heaven when I think what I have escaped & what I may yet suffer my blood curdles—Alas, Sterne too truly said that “Slavery was a bitter draught”—Our slaves have revolted and the plot was only found out by the noble interposition of a negro whom they invited to join them . . . he instantly with the subtlety of his class drew from his acquaintance the design plan time and then with trembling anxiety inform’d his master who instantly informed the Intendant & my uncle who is fortunately Governour and by them every means was taken to protect the city—for the information was given only a few days before the insurrection was to have taken place—since which a court of enquiry has been instituted of the most impartial and honourable men of our city who have been sitting now more than a week and the number implicated is incredible—and I blush to own that it has been traced to the whites for this day one or two white men have been taken up and the proofs are so strong as to hang them—for some intelligent negro who acts as a spy for the court found where their nightly meetings were held and carried our Intendant and one or two others there who saw and heard scenes of rapine & murder talked of with the coolness of demons—Their plans were simply these—they were to have set fire to the town and while the whites were endeavouring to out it they were to have commenced their horrid depredations—It seems that the Governour Intendant and my poor father were to be the three first victims—the men & Black Women were to have been indiscriminately murdered—& we poor devils were to have been reserved to fill their Harams [sic]—horrible—I have a very beautiful cousin who was set apart for the wife or more properly the “light of the Haram” of one of their Chiefs—and the old and infirm women were to have shared the fate of our fathers—It is true that in our city the white & Black population are equal 16,000 each but about Georgetown the odds is fearful—16,000 B—to 150 W—I do not know the estimate of the black population thro’ the state but I know that it is very great—I am told that the number in the plot is computed to be about 3000. . . .
God bless you
A. H. J.
Charleston, July 18th, 1822
My dear Cousin,
. . . I suppose that by this time you are anxious to hear more about the unhappy business which has filled with consternation all our city and nothing but the merciful interposition of our God has saved us from horror equal if not superior to the scenes acted in St Domingo—The catalogue is not filled up for we thought that it was ended and that the execution of six of the chiefs would suffice. The court had been dismissed and the town was again sinking into its wanted security when information was given that another attempt would be made at such a time, and the state’s witness gave information of such a nature as to induce the city council to recall the court, and since that period the alarm has spread most widely, and there are now between 50 & 60 of the leaders in our jail—It is said that twenty of them have been convicted & sentenced, and in all probability the execution will not end under 100, but I was told yesterday that the prisoners had been heard to say that even should there be 500 executed there would be still enough to carry the work into execution. Denmark Vesey one of those already executed and who was the instigator of the whole plot acknowledged that he had been nine years endeavouring to effect the diabolical scheme, how far the mischief has extended heaven only knows—I never heard in my life more deep laid plots or plots more likely to succeed, indeed “’twas a plot a good plot—an excellent plot.”
But ’twas a plot that had it succeeded would have told to after ages a most fearful tale—It would be absurd in me to attempt a detail of all the circumstances real or imaginary which I have heard—this much is all that I know of that bears the stamp of truth: that their intention was to take the city and keep it as long as possible and then carry us & the common negros to St D there to be sold as slaves with as much plunder as they could find . . . it seems that this Vesey had been to St D and made an agreement that at such a time so many Vessels should be here to assist—it would have been a complete scene of desolation—as yet thank God none of our slaves have been found in the plot. . . .
. . . Farewell God Bless you Anna
DOCUMENT 3 “The Conspiracy Had Spread Wider and Wider” : JOHN POTTER TO LANGDON CHEVES
(private)
Charleston 29th June 1822
My Dear Sir,
. . . A court of the most respectable individuals in the City have been patiently and laborously investigating this business, for 10 or 12 days past—and you will perceive by the news papers I send you that six wretches are to pay the forfeit of their worthless lives on tuesday—the plot was deeply laid, and a plan of insurrection (which a member of the court told me yesterday) was organized with an address & cunning, as he said would much surprise the community. At first Governor Bennett could not believe that his own negroes were implicated—but the subsequent investigation proved a scene of guilt, and murder, to be intended, unparallel’d even exceeding if possible, the Demons, of St. Domingo!!!
His excellency it is said was to be the first victim by his favorite servant Rolla—and his reward was to be Miss B. the Governor’s daughter—the very thought makes my blood recoil in my veins. I believe the plan was that the white males were all to be cut off—!!
Their meetings commenced, and were held under the perfidious cover of religion—and I cannot doubt that they were aided by the black missionaries from your City! . . .
I am always Yrs truly
J: Potter
(confidential)
(Confidential) Charleston 10th July 1822
My Dear Sir
. . . Since I last wrote you about this most diabolical plot which the mercy of God prevented on the very eve & very day of destruction—the public mind has been very much agitated—the first court resumed its labors, and every step they advanced it was found that the Conspiracy had spread wider and wider. . . . Indeed it is now well ascertained that most of the coachmen & favourite servants in the City knew of it even if they had not participated in the intentions & plans proposed. . . .
Alas a house newly built opposite Judge Johnson’s, R. Cunningham’s & several others most conspicuous, at the opposite corner—were to be fired on the night of the 16th ult. when as the white males were to appear—even before they could leave their own doors, the indiscriminate massacre was to take place—the females were to be reserved for worse than death. It is believed that Vesey’s plans when this had been completed [were] to have forced the Banks and carried off as much plunder as he could to St. Domingo—and leave his blind agents behind (as all could not go) [to] perish for their crimes—
When your kind, and tender hearted Philadelphians, as well as Quakers preach up emancipation—let them ponder on the deeds of darkness & misery that would have taken place had this plot even in part succeeded—but such evils are disregarded if their favourite plan of philanthropy had been successful—God in his mercy reward them for it!!! this is the spot from whence our evils spring!! . . .
J: Potter
Charleston 20th July 1822
My Dear Sir
. . . This cunningly and deeply devised plot was much more extensive than you had any idea of, when you wrote on the 11th: nothing could be better arranged and would have done credit to a better cause & other means—
All the arms on the Neck were deposited in one place—to which a negro had access and was to deliver the key—700 stand of muskets would also [have] been in their power—& there was enough powder ready at hand—and when the guard was overpowered—and arsenal taken, the torch was to give the signal of murder and blood—all those who were to go out on the cry of fire, which was to be multiplied, would meet their fate—the draymen, carters, and coachmen to act as Cavalry and secure the streets, when the confidential servants in the plot indoors were to murder every white male master of an adult age—many I hope were not implicated, I have no reason to suppose any of my house servants were guilty, but there were enough to commence with, and but anyway successfull even for a moment all, or nearly all, would have joined!
It is said by a fellow in his confession that when Vesey was inducing him to murder his master, he hesitated—but at length assented—then, what says he, will be done with the children? what says this arch villain, kill the Lice and let the nitts remain—no—no—never!!! Dr. Haig’s Harry was pressed by Gulla Jack to poison his master’s well—but he says he refused to do that deed, but assented to all the rest. . . .
J: Potter
Introduction to Document 4
Southern newspapers avoided covering the conspiracy for fear that literate slaves would spread word to their fellows. As northern newspapers learned of the trouble, however, they began to run stories on the rebellion, and the southern press responded. The following is an exchange that took place in the pages of the New York Daily Advertiser and the Charleston Courier in the summer of 1822. The Advertiser’sposition was an extreme one for the time, but it forced important local organs of public opinion to acknowledge the crisis openly. How do you think the Advertiser’s editor would have responded to the remarks in the Charleston papers?
DOCUMENT 4 “White Men, Too, Would Engender Plots” : NEWSPAPERS REPORT THE VESEY CONSPIRACY
New York Daily Advertiser
INSURRECTION AMONG THE BLACKS JULY 31, 1822
. . . It ought to excite no astonishment with those who boast of freedom themselves, if they should occasionally hear of plots and desertion among those who are held in perpetual bondage. Human beings, who once breathed the air of freedom on their own mountains and in their own valleys, but who have been kidnapped by white men and dragged into endless slavery, cannot be expected to be contented with their situation. White men, too, would engender plots and escape from their imprisonment were they situated as are these miserable children of Africa.
Reward handbill for runaway slaves. (Wisconsin Historical Society)
INSURRECTION AT CHARLESTON AUGUST 6, 1822
. . . As yet nothing has appeared that has met our view to justify the great sacrifice of human lives that has taken place. . . . How many more of these miserable wretches are to pay the forfeit of their lives for an attempt to free themselves from bondage we are yet to learn. How far the destruction of so many lives as have already been taken can be justified in the eyes of a Christian world, if it can be justified at all, must depend upon what is hereafter to be disclosed. Certain it is that neither the spirit nor letter of the law under which these executions have taken place, sanctions the enormous sacrifice.
Charleston Courier
AUGUST 12, 1822
. . . We have not been inattentive, in this distressing period, to the notice which might be taken of our situation by the journals in our sister states. It is grateful in the extreme to mark the tenderness and sympathy which, with the exception of one solitary print in New-York, have been universally manifested towards us. We are not in a state of mind to use language of acrimonious asperity. We regard with piety the individual who could deliberately sneer at our misfortunes—we leave him to the consolations of his conscience—his nightly dreams on his pillow—and hope he may always enjoy that security, which he so much rejoices that our city has been deprived of.
Yet, as an historical fact, worthy to be remembered, particularly at this time, and which Mr. STONE, of the N. York Commercial Advertiser, appears to have forgotten, we would remind him, as we had occasion once before to remind another editor of New-York, that in the year 1741, in the city of New-York, thirteen Negroes were BURNT ALIVE for insurrectionary efforts.
During the whole of this momentous inquiry, the utmost confidence has been felt in the State and City authorities, and in the two successive Courts organized to award justice, and acting under the most painful responsibilities. The Militia have with alacrity performed the unusual and laborious duties assigned them;—and now let us hope that the God of goodness and of mercy, who has guarded and protected us in the hour of peril, will continue to us his benevolent care, and frustrate always the evil designs of our enemies, and of those who conspire alike against our happiness and their own.
Introduction to Document 5
David Walker, a free black born in Wilmington, North Carolina, lived in Charleston on the eve of the Vesey plot, and he was probably a member of the African Methodist Episcopal church. Did the two men ever meet, did one influence the other, was Walker even part of the conspiracy? There is no way of knowing. Clearly, they shared many ideas about Africa, Haiti, the meanings of Christianity, and the necessity of freedom for all African Americans. Sometime in the early 1820s, Walker moved to Boston, and he was soon a prominent member of the free black community, where he owned a used clothing store. And then in 1829 he wrote his Appeal, a clarion call to end slavery, peacefully if possible, violently if necessary. And once his words were on paper, Walker worked hard to distribute them into the South through ports like Wilmington and Charleston.
White people, Walker declared, “have always been an unjust, jealous, unmerciful, avaricious and blood-thirsty set of beings, always seeking after power and authority.” Even within the nascent abolitionist movement (which was seen as very radical in the antebellum era) Walker’s Appeal was controversial. Most antislavery people before the 1850s came to their convictions through pacifism, the belief that allviolence was wrong. Walker’s intimations of bloodshed offended many of those who otherwise agreed that slavery was evil, indeed sinful.
The Appeal reads like oratory more than finished prose. Walker’s sentences are rough, even ungrammatical yet powerful. Despite circumlocutions and wordiness, the author’s ability to address his audience directly (sometimes speaking to whites, sometimes to blacks), and to claim moral authority from sources like the Bible and the Declaration of Independence gave the work its power. From the following passages, on what grounds did Walker attack slavery? How did he justify an assault against a legally sanctioned institution?
DOCUMENT 5 David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World
. . . When we take a retrospective view of the arts and sciences—the wise legislators—The Pyramids, and other magnificent buildings—the turning of the channel of the river Nile, by the sons of Africa or of Ham, among whom learning originated, and was carried thence into Greece, where it was improved upon and refined. Thence among the Romans, and all over the then enlightened parts of the world, and it has been enlightening the dark and benighted minds of men from then, down to this day. I say, when I view retrospectively, the renown of that once mighty people, the children of our great progenitor, I am indeed cheered. Yea further, when I view that mighty son of Africa, HANNIBAL, one of the greatest generals of antiquity, who defeated and cut off so many thousands of the white Romans or murderers, and who carried his victorious arms, to the very gate of Rome, and I give it as my candid opinion, that had Carthage been well united and had given him good support, he would have carried that cruel and barbarous city by storm. But they were disunited, as the colored people are now, in the United States of America, the reason our natural enemies are enabled to keep their feet on our throats.
Beloved brethren—here let me tell you, and believe it, that the Lord our God, as true as he sits on his throne in heaven, and as true as our Saviour died to redeem the world, will give you a Hannibal, and when the Lord shall have raised him up, and given him to you for your possession, O my suffering brethren! remember the divisions and consequent sufferings of Carthage and of Hayti, Read the history particularly of Hayti, and see how they were butchered by the whites, and do you take warning. The person whom God shall give you, give him your support and let him go his length, and behold in him the salvation of your God. . . .
I do declare it, that one good black man can put to death six white men; and I give it as a fact, let twelve black men get well armed for battle, and they will kill and put to flight fifty whites. The reason is, the blacks, once you get them started, they glory in death. The whites have had us under them for more than three centuries, murdering, and treating us like brutes; and, as Mr. Jefferson wisely said, they have never found us out—they do not know, indeed, that there is an unconquerable disposition in the breasts of the blacks, which when it is fully awakened and put in motion, will be subdued, only with the destruction of the animal existence. Get the blacks started, and if you do not have a gang of lions and tigers to deal with, I am a deceiver of the blacks and the whites. . . .
. . . Now, I ask you had you not rather be killed than to be a slave to a tyrant, who takes the life of your mother, wife, and dear little children? Look upon your mother, wife and children, and answer God Almighty; and believe this, that it is no more harm for you to kill a man, who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty; in fact, the man who will stand still and let another murder him, is worse than an infidel, and if he has common sense, ought not to to be pitied. . . .
Will not those who were burnt up in Sodom and Gomorrah rise up in judgment against Christian Americans with the Bible in their hands, and condemn them? Will not the Scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem, who had nothing but the laws of Moses and the Prophets to go by, rise up in judgment against Christian Americans, and condemn them who in addition to these have a revelation from Jesus Christ the son of the living God? In fine, will not the Antediluvians, together with the whole heathen world of antiquity, rise up in judgment against Christian Americans and condemn them? The Christians of Europe and America go to Africa, bring us away, and throw us into the seas, and in other ways murder us, as they would wild beasts. The Antediluvians and heathens never dreamed of such barbarities. . . .
How many vessel loads of human beings have the blacks thrown into the seas? How many thousand souls have the blacks murdered in cold blood to make them work in wretchedness and ignorance, to support them and their families . . . ? I say, from the beginning, I do not think that we were natural enemies to each other. But the whites having made us so wretched, by subjecting us to slavery, and having murdered so many millions of us in order to make us work for them, and out of devilishness—and they taking our wives, whom we love as we do ourselves—our mothers who bore the pains of death to give us birth—our fathers & dear little children, and ourselves, and strip and beat us one before the other—chain, handcuff and drag us about like rattle-snakes—shoot us down like wild bears, before each other’s faces, to make us submissive to and work to support them and their families. . . .
Remember Americans, that we must and shall be free, and enlightened as you are, will you wait until we shall, under God, obtain our liberty by the crushing arm of power? Will it not be dreadful for you? I speak Americans for your good. We must and shall be free I say, in spite of you. You may do your best to keep us in wretchedness and misery, to enrich you and your children but God will deliver us from under you. And wo, wo, will be to you if we have to obtain our freedom by fighting. Throw away your fears and prejudices then, and enlighten us and treat us like men, and we will like you more than we do now hate you, and tell us now no more about colonization, for America is as much our country, as it is yours.—Treat us like men, and there is no danger but we will all live in peace and happiness together. For we are not like you, hard hearted, unmerciful, and unforgiving. What a happy country this will be, if the whites will listen. . . .
The Americans may say or do as they please, but they have to raise us from the condition of brutes to that of respectable men, and to make a national acknowledgement to us for the wrongs they have inflicted on us. As unexpected, strange, and wild as these propositions may to some appear, it is no less a fact, that unless they are complied with, the Americans of the United States, though they may for a little while escape, God will yet weigh them in a balance, and if they are not superior to other men, as they have represented themselves to be, he will give them wretchedness to their very heart’s content. . . .
If any are anxious to ascertain who I am, know the world, that I am one of the oppressed, degraded and wretched sons of Africa, rendered so by the avaricious and unmerciful, among the whites.—If any wish to plunge me into the wretched incapacity of a slave, or murder me for the truth, know yet that I am in the hand of God, and at your disposal. I count my life not dear unto me, but I am ready to be offered at any moment. For what is the use of living when in fact I am dead. But remember Americans, that as miserable, wretched, degraded and abject as you have made us in preceding, and in this generation, to support you and your families that some of you (whites) on the continent of America, will yet curse the day that you ever were born. You want slaves, and want us for your slaves!!! My colour will yet, root some of you out of the very face of the earth!!!!!! You may doubt it if you please. I know that thousands will doubt—they think they have us so well secured in wretchedness, to them and their children, that it is impossible for such things to occur. So did the antideluvians doubt Noah, until the day in which the flood came and swept them away. So did the Sodomites doubt, until Lot had got out of the City, and God rained down fire and brimstone from heaven, upon them and burnt them up. So did the king of Egypt doubt the very existence of a God, he said, “who is the Lord, that I should let Israel go?” Did he not find to his sorrow, who the Lord was, when he and all his mighty men of war, were smothered to death in the Red Sea?—So did the Romans doubt, many of them were really so ignorant, that they thought the world of mankind were made to be slaves to them; just as many of the Americans think now, of my colour. . . .
See the hundreds and thousands of us that are thrown into the seas by Christians, and murdered by them in other ways. They cram us into their vessel holds in chains and in hand-cuffs—men, women and children, all together!! O! save us, we pray thee, thou God of heaven and of earth, from the devouring hands of the white Christians!!!!!! . . .
I also ask the attention of the world of mankind to the declaration of these very American people, of the United States. . . .
· When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. . . .
Compare your own language above, extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers on ourselves on our fathers and on us, men who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!!! . . . Now, Americans! I ask you candidly, was your sufferings under Great Britain one hundredth part as cruel and tyrannical as you have rendered out under you? . . .
POSTSCRIPT
Walker’s Appeal went through three editions, and much to the horror of masters, slaves were found with copies in their possession. Southerners demanded that the work be suppressed, bounties were offered on Walker, and in 1830, he was found dead on a Boston street. The cause of his demise was not determined. One year later, Nat Turner led the bloodiest slave rebellion in American history. There is no direct evidence linking Walker and Turner, only the coincidence of one man calling for rebellion and another fomenting it.
QUESTIONS
Defining Terms
Identify in the context of the chapter each of the following:
| Eli Whitney |
Gabriel Prosser |
| Santo Domingo |
Rolla |
| Denmark Vesey |
David Walker |
| Anna Hayes Johnson |
“free-labor capitalistic economy” |
| staple crops |
Toussaint L’Ouverture |
Probing the Sources
· 1. How big was Vesey’s conspiracy? What does the evidence indicate? Why is the size of the conspiracy important?
· 2. What was the role of religion in shaping or motivating the conspiracy and the white response? How did Vesey’s understanding of Christianity differ from that of the court that sentenced him to death?
· 3. Why did the plot fail? What were the rebels up against, and why was it so hard to mount a successful rebellion?
· 4. How and why did Walker invoke the Declaration of Independence?
Interpreting the Sources
· 1. What was the white reaction to Vesey’s plot? Why were some whites surprised by the “ingratitude” of their slaves? Why might previously loyal and relatively well-treated blacks become rebels?
· 2. How would you describe the motives and character of Vesey’s lieutenants? How important was leadership and organizational ability to this incident?
· 3. Slavery was the law of the land: was rebellion justified?
· 4. Resolved. For the sake of public safety, Walker’s Appeal must be banned. Discuss.
ADDITIONAL READING
The Vesey case has inspired much new scholarship. See David Robertson, Denmark Vessey (1999), Douglas Egerton, He Shall Go Out Free (1999), and Edward Pearson, Designs Against Charleston (1999). The extent of the conspiracy and quality of the evidence was vigourousely debated in the William and Mary Quarterly, October 2001. For the daily life of slaves, including discussions of slave rebellions, see John Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Ante-Bellum South (1979); Kenneth M. Stampp, The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South (1956); Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1974); and Brenda Stevenson, Life in Black and White (1996). On African-American culture, including music, humor, and folktales, see Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from Slavery to Freedom (1977), and Charles Joyner, Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community (1984). On women and slavery, see Elizabeth Fox Genovese, Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South (1988); and Deborah Gray White, Arn’t I a Woman (1985). For primary sources on day-to-day life, see the testimony of thousands of former slaves contained in George P. Rawick, ed., The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography (1972). On David Walker, see Peter P. Hinks, To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance (1997). Or other slave revolts, see Douglass Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion (1993); and Stephen B. Oates, The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion (1975).
