“ It extended alike to the master and the slave; to the cottage and the throne. Every one is more or less subject to control; and the most exalted, as well as the humblest individual, must bow with deference to the laws of that community, in which he is placed by Providence. Your situation, therefore, was neither extraordinary nor unnatural. Servitude has existed under various forms, from the Deluge to the present time, and in no age or country has the condition of slaves been milder or more humane, than your own. ”

“ I have seen Ned Bennett at Vesey’s. I one night met at Vesey’s a great number of men, and as they came in, they each handed him some money.—Vesey said, there was a little man, named Jack, who could not be killed, and who would furnish them with arms; he had a charm, and would lead them; that Charles Drayton had promised to be engaged with them. Vesey said, the negroes were living such an abominable life, they ought to rise. ”

“ But, admitting that a different result might have taken place, it is natural to inquire, what are the miseries of which you complain? That we should all earn our bread by the sweat of our brow, is the decree which God pronounced at the fall of man. ”

“ While such wretched expedients are calculated to inspire the confidence, or to alarm the fears of the ignorant and credulous, they excite no other emotion in the mind of the intelligent and enlightened, but contempt and disgust. ”

“ Jesse said, he had got a horse to go into the country, to bring down men to fight the white people; that he was allowed to pass by two parties of the patrol on the road, but that a third party had brought him back, and that, if there were but five men like him, they would destroy the city. This was on last Sunday week, (the 16th June,) he said, that before 3 o’clock, that night, all the white people would be killed. That, if any person informed, or would not join in the fight, such person would be killed or poisoned. ”

“ Monday Gell is very well known in this city. He is a most excellent harness-maker, and kept his shop in Meeting-Street. It would be difficult to name any individual more actively engaged in the plot than himself, or more able to aid Denmark Vesey, from his uncommon sagacity and knowledge. He reads and writes with great and equal facility, and obviously seems to have been the individual who held the pen, at all the meetings. At which he wrote more than one letter to San Domingo, for succors. ”

“ At another meeting at Denmark’s, Ned Bennett and Peter Poyas, and several others were present in conversation, some said, they thought it was cruel to kill the ministers, and the women and children, but Denmark Vesey said, he thought it was for our safety, not to spare one white skin alive, for this was the plan they pursued in St. Domingo. He then said to me, Jesse, I want you to go into the country, to enlist as many of the country negroes as possible, to be in readiness to come down to assist us. I told him, I had no horse, and no money to hire one ”

“ It was to reconcile us to our destiny on earth, and to enable us to discharge with fidelity all our duties, whether as master or servant, that those inspired precepts were imparted by Heaven to fallen man. ”

“ 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 to put in twelve and a half 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 Magazines, to get arms; that we ought to rise up against the whites to get our liberties. ”

“ Whenever I talked with Vesey, he always spoke of Monday Gell as being his principal and active man in this business.
(E.) Examination of Witness No. 10, a Negro Man. Peter Poyas was the first man who spoke to me, and asked me to join. I asked him what, the church? He said no, have you not heard, that the blacks were joining, to try and take the country. I asked him, if he thought he had men enough to do it? He said yes, a plenty of men, and the Society will contribute money, with which a white man would purchase guns and powder for them. ”

“ I told him, I was afraid, after all, of the white people from the back country and Virginia, &c. He said that the blacks would collect so numerous from the country, we need not fear the whites from the other parts, for when we have once got the city we can keep them all out. He asked, if I had told my boys. I said no. Then said he, you should do it, for Ned Bennett has his people pretty well ranged. But, said he, take care and don’t mention it to those waiting men who receive presents of old coats, &c. from their masters, or they’ll betray us. ”

“ We, moreover, believe, that all who were active agents (though not ringleaders) in the conspiracy, have expiated their crimes, or are about to do so, by an eternal exile from our shores. It may be mentioned, in confirmation of this belief, that Monday Gell, from memory, made out a list of forty-two names, of those who were in the habit of visiting his shop, for the purpose of combining and confederating in the intended insurrection, whom he called his company; every one of 28whom have been apprehended, and disposed of. ”

“ The most important object to be obtained in uprooting a conspiracy, we have fully accomplished, by bringing to punishment the whole of the ringleaders. Monday Gell, whose knowledge of the plot was, probably, exceeded only by Vesey’s, has emphatically stated, that the ringleaders were the first six, who were executed on the 2d of July, to wit: Denmark Vesey, Peter Poyas, Ned Bennett, Rolla, Batteau and Jesse ”

“ Every Slave who shall raise, or attempt to raise an Insurrection, in this Province, or shall endeavour to delude or entice any Slave to runaway and leave the Province, every such Slave and Slaves, and his and their accomplices, aiders and abetters, shall, on conviction thereof, as aforesaid, suffer death. ”

“ Such men as you, are, in general, as ignorant as you are vicious, without any settled principles, and possessing but few of the virtues of civilized life;—you would soon, therefore, have degenerated into a horde of barbarians, incapable of any government. ”

“ At Vesey’s they wanted to make a collection to make pikes for the country people, but the men had no money! Monday Gell said Purcell was one to get horses to send men into the country; I heard a blacksmith was to make pikes. Jack M’Neil is engaged; I have seen them all at Monday’s; Jack said he was one and would try to get men; the plan was to take the Arsenals and Guard Houses for arms, and not to fire the town unless they failed ”

“ 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. ”

“ You 48are exempt from many of the miseries, to which the poor are subject throughout the world. In many countries the life of the slave is at the disposal of his master; here you have always been under the protection of the law.
The tribunal which now imposes this sentence, through its humble organ, affords a strong exemplification of the truth of these remarks. In the discharge of the painful duties which have devolved on them, the members of this Court have been as anxious to acquit the innocent as determined to condemn the guilty. ”

“ These facts of his guilt the journals of the Court will disclose—that no man can be proved to have spoken of or urged the insurrection prior to himself. All the channels of communication and intelligence are traced back to him. His house was the place appointed for the secret meetings of the conspirators, at which he was invariably a leading and influential member; animating and encouraging the timid, by the hopes of prospects of success ”

“ The blacks would have risen on the night of the 16th, had the Guards not been so strong; this I know from Gullah Jack and Harry Haig, who said, that if the Guards were not too strong, they would get the arms near the Lines, but if the Guards were out, they could not get them to break out with.
(F.) Confession of Harry Haig. Julius Forrest, and myself, always worked together. Gullah Jack calls himself a negro doctor, he induced Julius and myself to join at last, but at first we refused; before the 16th June, Jack appointed to meet us at Bulkley’s Farm ”

“ His own situation afforded no excuse for the effort in which he was engaged, as he enjoyed all the substantial comforts of a free man; much indulged and trusted by his master, his time and a large proportion of the profits of his labour were at his own disposal. He even kept his master’s arms and sometimes his money. Monday is an Ebo, and is now in the prime of life, having been in the country 15 or 20 years. ”

“ SENTENCE pronounced on Dick, Bacchus, William, Naphur, Adam, Bellisle, Charles, Jeremy and Dean, by L. H. Kennedy, Esq. Presiding Magistrate.
The Court, on mature deliberation, have pronounced you guilty; the punishment of that guilt is DEATH. Your conduct, on the present occasion, exhibits a degree of depravity and extravagance, rarely paralleled. Your professed objects were to trample, not only on the laws of this state, but on those of humanity ”

“ Rolla represented himself as the commander of the Force which was to rendezvous in the vicinity of his master’s mills, and explained to the witness fully the order of attack; the division of the forces; and said, “that his troops, in their way into town, would fix his Old Buck (his master) and the Intendant.” On being asked whether it was intended to kill the women and children, he remarked when we have done with the men we know what to do with the women.—On this testimony Rolla was found guilty, and sentenced to be executed on the 2d of July. ”

“ This business originates altogether with the African Congregation, in which Peter is a leader. When Bennett’s Ned asked about those taken up, he alluded particularly to Mr. Paul’s William, and asked me if I said any thing to him about it.
33 The voluntary confession of Rolla, to the Court, made after his trial, but before sentence was passed on him. 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 raise up and fight the whites. ”

“ With the advice, however, of the Corporation, I have deemed a full publication of the prominent circumstances of the late commotion the most judicious course, as suppression might assume the appearance of timidity or injustice. Whilst such a Statement is due to the character of our community, and justification of our laws, there can be no harm in the salutary inculcation of one lesson, among a certain portion of our population, that there is nothing they are bad enough to do, that we are not powerful enough to punish.
J. HAMILTON, jun. Intendant,
Charleston, August 16th, 1822. ”

“ 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 one.” Jack said, Tom was making arms for the black people; Jack said, he would not be killed, nor could a white man take him.
(H.) Confession of Jesse, the slave of Thomas Blackwood, Esqr.; furnished to the Court by the Rev. Dr. D. Hall. I was invited to Denmark Vesey’s house, and when I went, I found several men met together, among whom was Ned Bennett, Peter Poyas, and others, whom I did not know. ”

“ He said, stop! let us get candidates from town with arms, and we will then take the Guard-House and Arsenal in town, the Arsenal on the Neck and the Upper Guard-House, and supply the country people with arms. How, said I, will you approach those Arsenals, &c. for they are guarded? Yes, said he, I know that, but what are these guards, one man here, and one man there, we let a man pass before us. Well, said I, but how will the black people from the country, and those from the islands, know when you are to begin, or how will you get the town people together. ”

“ Thomas’ and Cape Francais (San Domingo.) He was engaged in supplying the French of that Island with Slaves. In the year 1781, he took on board at St. Thomas’ 390 slaves and sailed for the Cape; on the passage, he and his officers were struck with the beauty, alertness and intelligence of a boy about 14 years of age, whom they made a pet of, by taking him into the cabin, changing his apparel, and calling him by way of distinction Telemaque, (which appellation has since, by gradual corruption, among the negroes, been changed to Denmark, or sometimes Telmak.) ”

“ From the testimony of most of the witnesses, however, the Court found enough, and amply enough, to warrant the sentence of death, which, on the 28th, they passed on him. But every subsequent step in the progress of the trials of others, lent new confirmation to his overwhelming guilt, and placed him beyond a doubt, on the criminal eminence of having been the individual, in whose bosom the nefarious scheme was first engendered. ”

“ Three or four days now elapsed, and notwithstanding all our efforts, we could obtain no confirmation of the disclosures of William, on the contrary, they seemed to have sustained some invalidation, from the circumstance, of one of the individuals (Ned Bennett) whom he named as a person who had information in relation to the insurrection, coming voluntarily to the Intendant, and soliciting an examination, if he was an object of suspicion. ”