Denmark Vesey Quotes

“Prioleau was soon afterward accepted into the free mulatto and black slave-holding elite of the city. In the U.S. census of 1840, he was reported as the owner in Charleston of seven slaves, including a married couple, Alfred and Lavinia Sanders, and their two-year-old son. In 1849, Prioleau, apparently needing money, sold the Sanderses’ son to another master for $235.”
― David M. Robertson, Denmark Vesey: The Buried Story of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It

“When at length the King of Terrors approached, he shrieked in utter agony of spirit, “Oh, the darkness of blackness, the black imps, I can see them all around me—take them away!” —Theodore Weld, on the death of a southern slaveholder, American Slavery As It Is, 1839”
― David M. Robertson, Denmark Vesey: The Buried Story of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It

“In 1822, the city government, noting the inadequacy of a nightly watch, petitioned the state government for the establishment of an arsenal, or “citadel,” independent of the city’s police force, to protect the white citizens against “an enemy in the bosom of the state.” By 1825, construction was under way, and, by 1841, by an act of the state legislature, the Citadel was established as South Carolina’s state military academy. Cadets from local families drilled weekly under arms in an intimidating show of white force to Charleston’s black community.”
― David M. Robertson, Denmark Vesey: The Buried Story of America's Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It