July 14 marks the date of Denmark Vesey’s planned rebellion 201 years ago.
Since the dawn of slavery in this country, “there has been slave resistance.” In an original study, historian Herbert Aptheker “found records of approximately two hundred and fifty revolts and conspiracies in the history of American Negro slavery.”
Indeed, emancipation was a byproduct of those brave souls who dared to chip away at the institution through acts of resistance, including the incitement of rebellions organized to destroy the institution of slavery and bring freedom to our people.
In essence, we have always fought injustice. Our legacy demonstrates that even when facing insurmountable odds, we always fought for our freedom.
ESSENCE is commemorating the Vesey rebellion by recognizing 7 slave revolts in America, which were organized even in the face of almost uncertain failure.
While New York City today is considered to be a progressive bastion, during the 1700s it was a large slave trade hub. But “[o]n April 6, 1712, this came to head when…a group of approximately 23 slaves gathered in an orchard on Maiden Lane in the center of town. Armed with swords, knives, hatchets and guns, the group sought to inspire the city’s slaves to rise up against their masters by staging a dramatic revolt,” killing nine slave owners and wounding an additional six.
In 1739, twenty slaves in the colony of South Carolina “gathered at the Stono River and raided a warehouse-like store, Hutchenson’s, executing the white owners and placing their victims’ heads on the store’s front steps for all to see.”
They were marching toward freedom under Spanish law in St. Augustine, FL, fighting “off the English for more than a week before the colonists rallied and killed most of the rebels.”
In 1800, Gabriel, a skilled blacksmith formulated a plan to fight for freedom, “enlisting his brother Solomon and another servant on the Prosser plantation.”
Gabriel was attempting to corral at least 1000 slaves to his cause and “march to Richmond, take the armory and hold Gov. James Monroe hostage…He planned his uprising for August 30 and publicized it well. But on that day, one of the worst thunderstorms in recent memory pummeled Virginia, washing away roads and making travel all but impossible.”
That caused many of his followers to abandon him and one slave betrayed him, and Gabriel and many of his co-conspirators were captured and hanged.
The largest slave uprising in the country happened in present-day Louisiana one year before it became a state in the union. “On January 6, 1811, several enslaved men met to finalize plans of an uprising along the coast. Two days later the slaves banded together and killed the son of their plantation owner.”
At Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, SC Denmark Vesey, a free Black man, planned an insurrection that involved “thousands killing slaveholders, freeing people and fleeing to Haiti” to take place on the anniversary of the French Revolution on July 14, 1822. However, a slave leaked Vesey’s plan and he along with dozens of others were ultimately executed before their plan could be executed. This is now considered to be “the most sophisticated slave rebellion by enslaved people in our nation’s history.”
Feeling it was his destiny ordained by God, “[o]n Sunday, August 21, 1831, Nat Turner met in the forest on the outskirts of a Virginia plantation with six fellow slaves.
With swords, muskets, axes, and other improvised weapons, the men went from house to house, farmstead to farmstead killing the white residents inside. Along the way, the group collected more slaves, as they headed from rural farmland toward Jerusalem, VA. The massacre continued for two days and resulted in the deaths of 55 men, women, and children.”
In what “has been called ‘a dress rehearsal for the Civil War,’” John Brown was planning “to arm up to 500 enslaved people after an attack on the United States arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in Virginia” in 1859. “Brown’s plan did not succeed and he was executed along with several co-conspirators.”
